I attempted to pick up copies of the ballots from the Barrow County Elections Office Thursday May 26th, on behalf of VoterGA. The copies of the actual ballots fed into the machine by the voter. They had sent an Open Records Request (ORR) Tuesday night to the Elections Director.

After a long wait, while the Director was on the phone, she came out and first told me she never received the ORR. She then went on to inform me that she has heard that several counties are requesting copies of the paper ballots. She then said that they have recieved orders from "the state" not to give anyone copies of the ballots. I asked, "isn't it the law that we have a right to receive copies of the ballots?" and in response, she said, "We are not allowed to make copies of ballots. We can only provide what the scanner produced, which is the image uploaded into the system.". She said we could submit an ORR for those, but not copies of the original ballots. She said that (quote) "the state advised that giving copies of ballots is not allowed".

According to O.C.G.A. 50-18-71 they are required to give us the copies of ballots as were requested, and they are NOT exempt.  I will be posting this Georgia Official Code on the Links & Docs page for you to read if you are interested. It is unlawful for the Elections Director to deny the public access to these documents, as far as I can tell. The Secretary of State, assuming that is who Ms. Franklin is referring to when she says "the state", is instructing the Elections Directors to break the law. That is my perspective. If I am missing something, please comment below and point it out.

Here is my theory, and I welcome anyone to chime in where I am wrong, or right. Chime in with something to back it up if possible. We need to get to the bottom of what happened, because to most people I have spoken with, the primary results make no sense.

First, the "Open Primary" in Georgia has got to go. This is so clearly a tool for the Dems and RINOs to use for cheating, or at least manipulating the outcome.  This should be a priority to be changed before 2024. However I am not sure how much of an effect it had on our local elections.

Second, There is still a QR code on the ballots. A voter chooses their party, goes to the machine and inserts their voting card, makes their choices, and prints out thier ballot. The voter can look over the ballot and agree that it shows who they voted for. Then they walk over and insert the ballot into the scanner which scans the barcode. How do we know that the barcode is transmitting the same choices the voter sees on their ballot? We don't. This system is very hackable. The scanner then makes a digital image of the ballot. This "digital image" is what we were told we COULD request, but NOT paper copies of the paper ballots that were fed into the scanner.  Keep in mind, there are no names of voters on these paper ballots that were fed into the scanner. So why are they so afraid to let us see the ballots before they were scanned, but have no problem allowing us to see the digital image the scanner produced? That is a question that needs to be answered. 

At the end of the day, the Poll Manager removes the ballots from the cabinet of the scanner, where they are not neatly stacked, but fall all over the floor when the door is opened. The ballots are stacked and put into black plastic boxes. Then the very very long calculator or receipt style tape is printed with all of the details of the votes scanned. I was unable to look at the details on the tape. Some locations hung their tapes on the windows or glass doors so voters could look at them the next day. Our precinct didn't so maybe they aren't required to?? Then the black boxes of ballots and the tapes are taken to the Elections Office by 2 teams of 2 in separate cars. I was told there was no flash drive or memory card used to transport data. This was a small precinct with only 617 voters. We had close to 90% Republican ballots chosen. 

Here is an expert description of the BMDs. If you click the link at the bottom of the description, you will find an article from 2018, about the same concerns we have today, likely from a Dem at that time, but now they seem eerily silent. 

From https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voting-equipment.aspx

Ballot marking device (BMD): A device that permits voters to mark a paper ballot. A voter’s choices are usually presented on a screen in a similar manner to a DRE, or perhaps on a tablet. However, a BMD does not record the voter’s choices into its memory. Instead, it allows the voter to mark the choices on-screen and, when the voter is done, prints the ballot selections. The resulting printed paper ballot is then either hand counted or counted using an optical scan machine. BMDs are useful for people with disabilities, but can be used by any voter. Some systems produced print-outs with bar codes or QR codes instead of a traditional paper ballot. Security experts have pointed out that there are risks associated with these types of systems since the bar code itself is not human readable.  

I will keep you all up to date on when and if this is resolved with our Barrow County Board of Elections. It is ultimately their responsibility to abide by the law, not override the law with the illegitimate demands of State Officials.