Twitter paired up with far-left news outlet Reuters Tuesday to prepare the public for a drawn-out runoff election process in Georgia.
“Why the winners in Georgia runoffs might not be known for days,” a Twitter “moment” said.
⚡️ Why the winners in Georgia runoffs might not be known for dayshttps://t.co/qHyCoCqJdO
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 5, 2021
“Moments” are a series of tweets on a specific subject highlighted by Twitter.
In this case, Twitter chose to highlight Reuters’ reporting that it might take longer than one day to settle the results of Tuesday’s U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia.
Typically, elections in the United States are decided on the day which they occur. Only since the implementation of “Vote by Mail” in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have election results been significantly delayed on a widespread level.
“Why might this drag on?” the Twitter “Moment” continued. “Slow counting of Georgia’s mail ballots in the presidential election kept the world in the dark about who won the state until three days after polls closed. Biden ended up winning the state by less than 12,000 votes out of about 5 million cast”
🗳️ Why might this drag on?
Slow counting of Georgia’s mail ballots in the presidential election kept the world in the dark about who won the state until three days after polls closed. Biden ended up winning the state by less than 12,000 votes out of about 5 million cast pic.twitter.com/nj0TAInuGy— Reuters (@Reuters) January 5, 2021
But as The Georgia Star News has reported, the slow counting of ballots is not normal, and may even be a violation of Georgia’s own election code.
The state has allowed absentee ballots to be collected in drop boxes during the current election cycle. On election day, election workers are supposed to collect those ballots, and the ballots must be “immediately transported” to the county registrar to be counted, according to State Election Board Emergency Rule 183-1-14-0.8-.14
The chain of custody of absentee ballots is important to election security. Ballots picked up from drop boxes are supposed to be “immediately” dropped off to the county registrar to avoid any tampering that could occur between the pickup and drop off.
But the Georgia Star News found that 79 percent of the 89,000 ballots collected at drop boxes in Cobb County were not “immediately transported” for counting, with some taking as many seven hours and 15 minutes to be delivered to the county registrar on November 3.
“More notably, there were at least 6 separate instances involving a total of more than 1,800 ballots that ballots were not officially transferred to the registrar until the next day,” The Georgia Star News reported. “There was also one collection of 227 drop box absentee ballots was transferred 2 days later and another collection of 274 ballots was transferred three days later to the registrar.”
Still, Twitter, in conjunction with Reuters, is trying to normalize this abnormal and possibly illegal arrangement in its prominently featured “Moment” on the runoff elections.
“We may be looking at several days,” Walter Jones, spokesman for Georgia’s embattled Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, according to Reuters.
'We may be looking at several days': A similar delay could unfold after Tuesday’s contests if the races are really close, said Walter Jones, a spokesman for the office of Georgia’s top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger pic.twitter.com/3j9C1NhX7R
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 5, 2021
After pressure from the White House, Raffensperger begrudgingly conducted an “audit” of absentee ballots in Cobb County, the results of which were released on December 29. But that audit, as reported by The Georgia Star News, was majorly flawed, and raised more questions than answers.
President Donald J. Trump directly questioned Raffensperger about the ballot drop boxes in a phone call that Raffensperger’s office leaked to the press, and published in The Washington Post Sunday.
The Georgia Star News reported on the conversation between the pair.
“[Y]ou had drop boxes, which is very bad,” Trump said. “You had drop boxes that were picked up. We have photographs, and we have affidavits from many people. I don’t know if you saw the hearings, but you have drop boxes where the box was picked up but not delivered for three days. So all sorts of things could have happened to that box, including, you know, putting in the votes you wanted.”
Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, both Republicans, face Democrat challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively, in the runoff elections.
– – –
Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
