Georgia Sec of State Raffensperger missing chain of custody docs for 6,995 absentee ballots, report

A review of documents related to the 2020 election results reportedly shows the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State is missing chain-of-custody "transfer forms" for 6,995 absentee ballots in Fulton County.

The documents were provided and reviewed by the Georgia Star News in response to an open records request.

The ballots were deposited in drop boxes throughout the county. 

The number of absentee ballots for which the office has no evidence of origin represents 9% of the 79,460 total the county recorded as being deposited into drop boxes, according to the news outlet.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, certified the results of the election, which gave the state's 16 Electoral College votes to then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden – by a margin of 12,670 votes out of 5 million votes cast.

Raffensperger did so without having seen or reviewed the chain-of-custody documents associated with an estimated 600,000 total absentee ballots deposited in 300 drop boxes across the state. The number of absentee ballots deposited in Fulton County drop boxes represented about 13% of the state total.

Just the News reported that the secretary of state’s office did not receive the chain of custody documents from county election offices throughout the state until January and February of 2021.

Raffensperger has never offered an explanation as to why he certified the state’s election results without having even looked at the chain of custody documents for absentee ballots placed in drop boxes.

The absentee ballots in Fulton County should have been documented on at least 140 separate drop box transfer forms, a process put into place through Emergency Rule 183-1-14-0.8-.14 promulgated by the State Election Board in July 2020.