The claim: More than 380,000 ballot images missing from 2020 presidential election in Fulton County
A May 12 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a Georgia election board member asking in a meeting why 380,761 ballot images from Election Day are not available.
"Over 380,000 ballot images missing in Fulton County," reads the on-screen text.
The post garnered more than 6,000 likes in 10 days. Other versions of the claim were shared on Instagram, Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: False
Election officials said there is no evidence any mass quantity of ballot images are missing. And even if they were, that's not evidence of misconduct or impropriety since the original ballots were counted (and recounted) and ballot images weren't required to be kept under state law at the time. The ballots from the 2020 election have been recounted several times in Georgia, and the results have been confirmed to be accurate.
No evidence of 380,000 missing ballot images
The clip shown in the post is from a May 7 Georgia Election Board meeting, in which Board Member Janice Johnston asked about more than 380,000 supposedly missing ballot images in Fulton County. The Instagram post in question is echoing her claim.
But election officials said there's no such volume of missing ballot images. And any images that are missing didn't affect the count since the county retained the original ballots.
In the meeting, Charlene McGowan, general counsel under Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, replied that ballot images from the 2020 Fulton County vote recount were subpoenaed and 518,000 were received. That is nearly 99% of the roughly 525,000 total votes cast in Fulton County, according to the state's hand-counted audit.
Robert Sinners, a spokesperson for the Georgia Secretary of State, said the claim is both false and misleading. He noted that ballot images were new in 2020 and weren't required to be kept under state law at the time.
"Ballot images are never counted as votes," Sinners told USA TODAY in an email. "In 2020, ballot images were unaddressed in state law. Ballot images were added to records retention by law in 2021, but claims of missing or deleted 'ballots' remain false."
Sinners also pointed out that the accuracy of the state's election results has been confirmed by several previous vote recounts.
"Two additional reviews of the statewide tallies confirmed that the 2020 election results in Georgia were fair and accurate," Sinners said. "Administrative errors in a county conducting that review do not invalidate an election, despite the baseless claims from election deniers."
There are no credible news reports about 380,000 missing ballot images in Fulton County.
McGowan also noted in the meeting that election results were found to be accurate.
"We have the paper ballots," McGowan said. "There are no missing ballots. Like I said we have hand-counted every single ballot."
The Georgia Election Board voted at the meeting to reprimand Fulton County "for violating state law while conducting a recount of the 2020 presidential election" and to appoint an independent monitor for the 2024 election, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting.
State election officials also determined that mistakes made by election workers in 2020 would not have changed the election's outcome.
Fact check: Post falsely compares time to count votes in Georgia primaries, 2020 election
USA TODAY has previously debunked numerous false claims about election fraud in Georgia during the 2020 presidential election.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
- Robert Sinners, May 13-21, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Georgia House of Representatives (YouTube), May 7, State Elections Board 05.07.24
- Georgia Public Broadcasting, May 8, Georgia oversight panel ruminates on 2020 election hiccups as 2024 showdowns loom
- The Associated Press, Dec. 7, 2020, Georgia again certifies election results showing Biden won
- Bipartisan Policy Center, Aug. 17, 2023, Implications of Making Ballot Images and Cast Vote Records Public
- Georgia Secretary of State, Nov. 19, 2020, 2020 General Election Risk-Limiting Audit
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