Wednesday, Jun. 9, 2021
Were 174 batches of ballots missing in the Fulton County, Georgia, vote count?
A post with a video clip makes the claim but provides no sourcing or evidence.
A spokeswoman for Fulton County, meanwhile, told Lead Stories no ballots were missing.
The claim is similar to claims made during a May 2021 hearing in a lawsuit against Fulton County. A forensic accountant testifying for the plaintiffs said there was a difference in the number of batches of ballots reported in the original vote count and the number reported in a "risk-limiting audit" and hand recount.
But there is no requirement that batches in vote counts match in number. Grouping ballots into batches is just a way for poll workers to organize. There's no rule it has to be done the same way each time.
Results of the audit confirmed original results of the election — Joe Biden won with 74% in heavily Democratic Fulton County.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- National Conference of State Legislatures Checking the Election: Risk-Limiting Audits
- Fulton County (Georgia) Election Results Search
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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