ATLANTA (AP) – Days after his candidacy for governor was announced, Republican David Perdue took on exposed allegations of electoral fraud in Georgia’s 2020 presidential campaign by joining a lawsuit to prove that he and the former were President Donald Trump were cheated out of election victories.
The lawsuit alleges fraudulent or forged ballots have been counted in Fulton County, the state’s most populous jurisdiction, despite investigators previously refuting the same claims.
Perdue’s lawsuit reinforces claims the former senator has made this week since announcing a challenge to incumbent Governor Brian Kemp on Monday. Perdue told Axios and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he would not have certified Georgia’s 2020 results if he had been governor at the time, unlike Kemp. Georgia law states that the governor must approve the results.
Trump has repeatedly blamed Kemp for not doing enough to undo the loss. After inviting Perdue to run for office, Trump backed Perdue on Monday, saying Kemp was “very weak” on “electoral integrity”.
The lawsuit could aid Perdue’s efforts to stitch together the votes of Trump supporters who believe the election was stolen while he tries to come back from his Senate election defeat, saying it will unite the Republican Party and Kemp in the Will beat primaries and then Democrat Stacey Abrams.
His position that the 2020 elections in Georgia were wrongly decided is not new. He called on Republican Foreign Secretary Brad Raffensperger to resign while the 2020 votes were still being tallied against Georgia’s electoral votes. But so far he hadn’t complained.
“David Perdue is so concerned about election fraud that he waited a year to file a lawsuit that conveniently coincided with his disastrous campaign start,” said Kemp spokesman Cody Hall. “Remember, lawsuit after lawsuit regarding the 2020 elections have been partially dismissed because Perdue refused to be listed as a plaintiff.”
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Fulton County voters Elizabeth Grace Lennon and Perdue are trying to investigate paper ballots and other election papers in Fulton County in the state court process and say it will prove the fraud. However, the lawsuit is not aimed at overturning the election result, in which Georgia gave Democratic President Joe Biden its 16 votes.
“I would like to use my position and legal position to shed light on what I know of serious violations of Georgia law in the Fulton postal voting table,” Perdue said in a statement released by attorneys. “We are asking a judge to review the evidence after our forensic review of the postal voting records is complete and hold the individuals involved in this illegal conduct accountable.”
Raffensperger said Perdue is trying to ingratiate itself with the Trump base by advancing electoral conspiracy theories that Perdue doesn’t really believe in.
“This lawsuit recycles old claims that have already been refuted and is a waste of time for everyone,” Raffensperger said in a statement.
Fulton County Commission chairman Robb Pitts, a Democrat, said it was “disheartening” to see Perdue “make this desperate attempt to appeal to believers in the great lie.”
The lawsuit is largely a replay of the lawsuit brought by Henry County Supreme Court Justice Brian Amero, who was dismissed in October after ruling that plaintiffs, including long-time critic of the electoral system in Georgia Garland Favorito, had no “special.” Injury “alleged and therefore were not empowered to sue. Favorito and other plaintiffs are appealing this dismissal despite winning the publication of pictures of the electronic ballot papers.
The new plaintiffs, who moved the lawsuit to Amero, say they have the authority to bring claims that their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process have been violated. Perdue claims his particular injury was that he was a candidate for re-election in November but failed to win a majority, forcing him to a runoff election with Democrat Jon Ossoff, who Perdue lost. Lennon says she sought a personal early vote in October 2020 but was told that a postal vote had already been tabled on her behalf.
Raffensperger’s office forwarded a legal brief to Amero just before he dismissed the case stating that investigators had found no evidence of fraudulent ballots.
“Based on the testimony of witnesses and the examination of approximately 1,000 postal ballot papers and ballot paper pictures, the secretary’s investigators did not uncover any postal ballot papers that corresponded to the descriptions given … or otherwise appeared to be fraudulent or forged,” said the legal brief.
The new lawsuit contains allegations that investigators have debunked, including allegations by Susan Voyles and three other examiners that they saw “plain” postal ballot papers during a hand count that appeared to have been marked by a computer and not creased as if they were would be put in envelopes. Investigators said they could not have found any such ballot papers.
The lawsuit also renews debunked claims that election officials deliberately lied that they would not count on election night, alleging that once the observers left, pollers pulled out “suitcases” of ballot papers and counted the votes multiple times, effectively counting the score increased for the Democrats.
Foreign minister investigators said they had also found no evidence, saying the video showed the suitcases were normal ballot boxes that were brought out when poll workers were told to keep counting. Investigators said the workers told them that the ballot scanners were often blocked, so workers would have to make multiple attempts to scan ballots. Investigators said the scanner’s activity logs confirmed paper jams that were reported by workers and viewed on video.
The letter found that former US attorney BJay Pak also concluded that there was no evidence that workers counted hidden fraudulent ballots based on statements made to the FBI and an independent review of the evidence.
Seth Bringman, a spokesman for Abrams, said: “While David Perdue leads the conspiracy choir, Stacey will focus on the Georgians.”
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