The Claim: In Georgia’s 2020 election, ballot papers sold for $ 10 apiece

In response to President Joe Biden’s January 6th speech on the Capitol Riots, Donald Trump issued a series of statements containing false and misleading claims about the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The former president has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims about voting in the battlefield state of Georgia, and in January 2021 attempted to persuade election officials there to recalculate the state’s votes in his favor. Now he claims that ballot papers were sold there for $ 10.

“Where did all these Georgia voices show up, where it was just announced that they had sold ballots for $ 10 apiece,” Trump said in a statement his spokeswoman Liz Harrington tweeted on Jan. 6 on Twitter collected more than 4,000 interactions in one day.

Similar versions of the claim found their way onto Facebook, where users shared a screenshot of Trump’s Jan. 6 statement shortly after it was posted.

Trump and his allies pushed through baseless and debunked election claims for more than a year. However, they have provided no evidence of widespread fraud. Meanwhile, dozens of lawsuits aimed at overturning the presidential election results have been dismissed by judges, and a series of recounts, audits, and even partisan scrutiny promoted by Conservatives have confirmed the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.

Trump’s reference to the sale of $ 10 ballot papers clearly misrepresents a claim by a conservative group – one that has not been verified by election officials either. True the Vote, a conservative organization that defines itself as a voter integrity group and previously filed 2020 election lawsuits in support of Trump, claims that a person they refuse to publicly identify will be paid $ 10 each for ballot papers collected from others.

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Trump referred to this claim while claiming the 2020 elections were “rigged,” but True the Vote does not claim or provide any evidence that the ballot papers were fraudulent.

Complaint leads to investigation

It is true that the November 30th poll filed a complaint with the Georgia Secretary of State and the agency is investigating this as a possible case of ballot harvest. This practice of third parties collecting and submitting postal ballot papers on behalf of others is legal in some states but not in Georgia.

The group claims they have video footage of people collecting and delivering postal ballot papers and an interview with an unnamed man who claims he paid thousands of dollars to collect and submit ballots during the November 2020 election, according to one Jan 4th report from Just the News, a website that previously shared misinformation about Georgia’s 2020 elections.

The Just the News article states that True the Vote “does not claim that the courier-delivered ballots were fraudulent,” as Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reiterated.

“Voting ballot papers are still legitimate ballot papers, they were just treated fraudulently. Many states actually allow voting slips to be collected, ”Raffensperger told the National Desk. “We banned it because we believe that the only person who should touch the ballot is the voter and the poll worker, and there should be no people and intermediaries in between.”

Ari Schaffer, a spokesman for Raffensperger, declined to speak to USA TODAY, referring instead to Raffensperger’s comments to the National Desk.

While the election of ballots is illegal under Georgian law, 31 states allow a voter to authorize someone to return a ballot on their behalf, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Ballot papers collected in this way would still have had to be issued after the procedure that includes checking eligibility for voting.

In Georgia, voters must register and show ID in order to receive a postal vote. A postal ballot can be returned by post or at a drop-off point and must be properly signed according to the state website. These signatures are then verified by election officials.

It is true that the vote did not identify the name of the person who claims they paid $ 10 for each ballot collected and cast, and the group did not respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY. Raffensperger told The National Desk: “We have to summon ‘John Doe’ because the information is there” and “nobody knows who this person is”.

On January 5th, True the Vote posted a message on its website stating, “This statement is currently the limit of our public comments so as not to interfere with the investigative efforts currently underway.”

Fact check:How do we know that the 2020 election results were legitimate and not “rigged” as Donald Trump claims?

In an email to USA TODAY, Harrington – the Trump spokesman – referred to Just the News’ article about the group’s complaint. The social media users who shared the post did not respond to a request for comment.

The allegation has already been examined

Georgia’s GOP chairman and True the Vote made a similar allegation in September 2021, alleging they were in possession of geolocation data from cell phones that news reports said linked people to ballot box journeys.

At the time, Vic Reynolds, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said “an investigation is not warranted” because there is “no other evidence linking these phones to ballot collection.”

“For example, there are no testimonies and no names of potential defendants to question,” Reynolds said in a letter. “It is noticeable that there is a ‘source’ that can validate the collection of ballots. Despite repeated requests, this source was neither made available to the GBI nor the FBI.”

Biden won Georgia and its 16 electoral college votes, and three separate reviews found no evidence of widespread voter fraud affecting the state’s election results. Allegations of election workers, nightly “election dumps” and other allegations about the Georgia 2020 elections have previously been debunked.

Summary of the fact check:False accounts of the January 6th Capitol Rebellion exposed

In a ten-page letter to Congress on January 6, 2021, Raffensperger said, “There is nowhere near enough evidence to question the outcome of the Georgia presidential contest.”

Our assessment: Lack of context

Based on our research, we evaluate MISSING CONTEXT the claim that people were paid $ 10 per ballot paper in Georgia in November 2020 because it is misleading and unproven. Trump’s allegation is based on a complaint about the ballot ballot election that sparked an investigation by the Georgian State Department. It is true that the vote did not identify the witness who claims to have been paid, and the group does not claim that the ballots themselves were fraudulent. Georgia investigators previously investigated a similar allegation, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant an investigation.

Our fact check sources:

  • Just the News, Jan. 4, Georgia opens an investigation into possible illegal ballot removal in the 2020 election
  • The National Desk, Jan. 5, Georgia opens an investigation into allegations of ballot collection
  • The Washington Post, May 26, 2020, What is the “ballot harvest” and why is Trump so against it?
  • PolitiFact, July 9, 2021, No evidence of absent absentee voting in the 2020 elections in Georgia
  • National Conference of State Legislature, accessed Jan. 7, Table 10: Ballot Collection Laws
  • PolitiFact, May 29, 2020, What is ballot harvest and why is Trump tweeting about it during an election year pandemic?
  • JUSTIA, accessed January 7, 2010 Georgia Code § 21-2-385
  • Georgia Secretary of State, called January 7, voting by absentee ballot
  • The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 21, 2021, GBI chief: Not enough evidence to prosecute allegations of GOP electoral fraud
  • 11Alive, 23.10.2021, GBI Director: Investigations into allegations of election fraud due to ballot removal “not justified”
  • True the Vote, Jan. 5, True the Vote statement on the Georgia polling investigation
  • Georgia Secretary of State Elections Division, accessed January 7, A Guide for Registered Voters
  • Associated Press, Nov. 19, 2020, Biden wins Georgia, ending the Democrats’ long losing streak
  • USA TODAY, June 1, 2021 Fact Check: No Evidence of Fraud in Georgia Election Results
  • USA TODAY, Dec 14, 2020 fact check: Georgia ‘suitcase’ video lacks context
  • U.S. TODAY, May 29, 2021 Fact Check: Military in Georgia, Foreign Ballots No Proof of Election Fraud
  • USA TODAY Nov 6, 2020 Fact Check: The Georgia Ballot Healing Is Not An Election Fraud
  • Georgia Secretary of State, Jan. 6, 2021, letter to Congress on point-by-point rebuttal of false allegations about the Georgia elections

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