{"id":40402,"date":"2020-12-07T15:43:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=40402"},"modified":"2020-12-07T15:44:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:44:19","slug":"the-federalist-destroys-attempted-debunking-of-late-night-ballot-malarkey-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=40402","title":{"rendered":"The Federalist Destroys Attempted Debunking Of Late-Night Ballot Malarkey In Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZeroHedge.com<\/p>\n

After\u00a0explosive video<\/a>\u00a0was presented during a Georgia state Senate hearing which clearly shows a handful of election workers in Atlanta waiting for observers and the press to leave, before producing several containers of ballots<\/strong>\u00a0for a late-night vote-counting party, a group called Lead Stories published a “hoax alert” which falsely claims to have debunked the footage.<\/p>\n

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The “hoax alert” was peddled by the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>,\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>\u00a0and others – and among other things states that government officials told them that the ballots were in “containers — not suitcases,” and that “party observers were never told to leave because counting was over for the night.”<\/p>\n

Nevermind the fact that Lead Stories breathlessly believes claims made by government officials –\u00a0The Federalist<\/em><\/a>‘s Mollie Hemingway just obliterated the entire ‘fact check,’ proving that the video hasn’t been debunked whatsoever.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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First –\u00a0<\/strong>Party officials claim observers were never told that counting was over for the night.<\/p>\n

False:\u00a0<\/strong>Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer “has consistently said that\u2019s what happened at State Farm Arena, beginning hours after the election.”<\/p>\n

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That claim, which he has\u00a0repeated consistently<\/a>,\u00a0is backed by\u00a0sworn affidavits<\/a>\u00a0from two Republican observers, who further allege they were kept an\u00a0unreasonable distance from the ballots<\/a>\u00a0even while they were at State Farm Arena, making it completely impossible to meaningfully do their jobs<\/strong>. (The video, which shows the room from four different angles, fully supports the claim that poll watchers were kept away from meaningful observation of ballot handling.)<\/p>\n

The observers say that they arrived for their observation jobs around 8 p.m.\u00a0They say in the first half of the 10 o\u2019clock hour, a woman with blonde braids who appeared to be a supervisor \u201cyelled out\u201d to those present in the room that they would stop working for the night and would resume in the morning<\/strong>. The Republican poll watchers said they asked Fulton County Elections Spokesperson Regina Waller questions about the status of the ballot count multiples times but that she refused to answer. –The Federalist<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to\u00a0Lead Stories, however, “There was never an announcement made to the media and other observers about the counting being over for the night and them needing to leave, according to [Frances Watson, chief investigator for the Georgia Secretary of State],\u00a0who was provided information by the media liaison<\/strong>, who was present.” Lead Stories doesn’t name this “media liaison,” however according to the affidavits, it was Regina Waller – the Fulton County public affairs manager for elections.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0The Federalist<\/em>‘s Hemingway notes:<\/p>\n

OK, so\u00a0on the one hand you have sworn affidavits from observers<\/strong>\u00a0saying that supervisors told ballot counters to go home for the evening shortly after 10 p.m. and a video showing everyone leaving en masse at that time. And\u00a0on the other hand, you have two government officials promising that no one was told that counting was over<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hemingway further points out that\u00a0ABC News\u00a0<\/em>reported ballot counters were sent home<\/strong>\u00a0at the same time GOP observers say everyone was told counting had stopped.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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So,<\/strong>\u00a0GOP poll watchers and the MSM reported that counting was delayed.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just ABC that reported counting was being delayed. Many\u00a0media outlets<\/a>\u00a0reported on\u00a0counting delays<\/a>. See, for example, \u201cFulton County stopped counting absentee ballots for the night<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local NBC journalists on site that night independently confirmed \u201cthey were told counting was done for the night<\/a><\/strong>\u201d and given no indication it would continue before the next morning.\u00a0The\u00a0Atlanta Journal-Constitution even reported<\/a>\u00a0of a \u201cplan\u201d to stop scanning ballots at the same time the poll watchers said things were shut down… –The Federalist<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Second claim – A designated election observer was sent by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office<\/strong><\/p>\n

Misleading:\u00a0<\/strong>While Newsweek – and later Lead Stories – claim that while partisan observers may not have been present for the vote count, an “unnamed state election board monitor was present.”<\/p>\n

A state election board monitor, who asked for his name not to be used due to safety concerns, told Lead Stories on the phone on December 3, 2020, that he was present at the vote counting location beginning at 11:52 p.m., after leaving briefly at earlier in the evening. He then stayed until about 12:45 a.m., when the work that night was completed.<\/p>\n

The deputy chief investigator for the secretary of state\u2019s office was present beginning at 12:15 a.m. November 4, he said. –Newsweek<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet,\u00a0the monitor was there for less than an hour – from 11:52 p.m. on election night to 12:45 a.m.<\/strong> – which means that nobody was observing the count for over an hour after the ballots began being scanned at 10:35 p.m.<\/p>\n