A claim that as many as 132,000 ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, are highly likely to be ineligible is being made with additional information that if counted properly, Trump may win Georgia. But here is a fact check on the claims made on Georgia's alleged voter fraud.
Former Fox News writer Kyle Becker posted a tweet with a claims, "132,000 change of address Red Flag in Fulton County, Georgia, GA. These votes are highly likely ineligible to vote and have moved." The claim was wrongly made based on a tweet by Richard Baris, director of Big Data Polling.
Tweet Taken Out of Context?
Baris' tweet Read: "Georgia, which we just began to touch now, there are 132k CoA flags in Fulton County, alone. We're never going to stop until we clean it up." After this source was taken to make the above said claim, Baris told Snopes.com that he never said 132,000 ballots were likely to be tossed out. He said that while researching voter files in Georgia, he noted there were 132,000 flags indicating that people had moved.
"A change of address flag means someone reported they have a forwardable address, yet they are on the voter rolls still," Baris told Snopes. He also said that his commentary was taken out of context by various news websites including the Gateway Pundit junk site.
In the Fulton County, a total of 522,050 ballots were cast in this election. If 132,000 ballots are disqualified, it would amount to a quarter of the total ballots cast. The news is of importance as Georgia, which was won by Trump in 2016, voted in favor of Joe Biden this time. Biden won 12,000 votes more than Trump to claim Georgia.
But Republicans are claiming that if these 132,000 votes are disqualified this would reverse the result in favor of Trump. The Trump team has demanded a recount.
The Verdict: Claim is False
The verdict is that this claim is false. Firstly, the post, when shared on Facebook, was flagged by the social media in its effort to battle misinformation and spread of fake news. Secondly there is no proof or authentic research that resulted in the claim of 132,000 ballots being ineligible.
Baris, the person who is said to have made the claims himself, has said that his tweet was taken out of context. Moreover, he did not provide any link or statement by any official regarding the same.
Speaking to PolitiFact, director of external affairs for Fulton County government, Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez said that the claim is completely unsubstantiated. "Fulton County is aware of allegations of 132,000 ballots being flagged. These claims are simply false and baseless. Certain news organizations have circulated this information without contacting Fulton County for confirmation," Dominguez said.
In fact, a republican, Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan also said that there have not been any sort of credible examples of voter fraud in Georgia. Thus there is no proof or expose for claiming 132,000 ballots in Georgia are ineligible.
