“There was no HAND recount in GA.”
Thank you for that. From the complaint:
68.
Non-parties Amanda Coleman and Maria Diedrich are two individuals who volunteered to serve as designated monitors for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Campaign, Inc. (the “Trump Campaign”) on behalf of the Georgia Republican Party (the “Republican Party”) at the Hand Recount. (Attached hereto and incorporated herein as Exhibits 2 and 3), respectively, are true and correct copies of (1) the Affidavit of Amanda Coleman in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (the “Coleman Affidavit”), and (2) the Affidavit of Maria Diedrich in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (the “Diedrich Affidavit”). (See Exh. 11, Coleman Aff.,2; Exh. 12, Diedrich Aff., 2.)
69.
The Affidavits set forth various conduct amounting to federal crimes, clear improprieties, insufficiencies, and improper handling of ballots by County Officials and their employees that Ms. Coleman and Ms. Diedrich personally observed while monitoring the Hand Recount. (See Exh. 11, Coleman Aff., 3-10; Exh. 12, Diedrich Aff., 4-14.)
70.
As a result of her observations of the Hand Recount as a Republican Party monitor, Ms. Diedrich declared, “There had been no meaningful way to review or audit any activity” at the Hand Recount. (See Exh. 12, Diedrich Aff.,14.)
71.
As a result of their observations of the Hand Recount as Republican Party monitors, Ms. Coleman likewise declared, “There was no way to tell if any counting was accurate or if the activity was proper.” (See Exh. 12, Coleman Aff.,10).
72.
On Election Day, when the Republican poll watchers were, for a limited time, present and allowed to observe in various polling locations, they observed and reported numerous instances of election workers failing to follow the statutory mandates relating to two critical requirements, among other issues:
(1) a voter’s right to spoil their mail-in ballot at their polling place on election day and to then vote in-person, and
(2) the ability for voters to vote provisionally on election day when a mail-in ballot has already been received for them, but when they did not cast those mail-in ballots, who sought to vote in person during early voting but was told she already voted; she emphasized that she had not. The clerk told her he would add her manually with no explanation as to who or how someone voted using her name. (Attached hereto as Exh. 13, Aff. Ursula Wolf)
73.
Another observer for the ballot recount testified that “at no time did I witness any Recounter or individual participate in the recount verifying signatures [on mail-in ballots].” (Attached hereto as Exh. 14, Nicholas Zeher Aff).
74.
In some counties, there was no actual “hand” recounting of the ballots during the Hand Recount, but rather, County Officials and their employees simply conducted another machine count of the same ballots. (See. Exh. 9, 10). That will not reveal the massive fraud of which plaintiffs complain.
Paragraph 74 is what was burned into my brain, but I now see that was just for “some counties.” GIven this, seems like yet another Equal Protection argument can be woven into disparate recount techniques across GA.
I’m not positive on the definition of a hand RECOUNT vs. a hand AUDIT (what the SoS called “risk minimizing audit” or something like that). What I think happened was closer to the hand audit side of things than to a hand recount as the average person understands it (i.e. seeing, touching, and counting literally every ballot again). Most likely, they randomly selected a statistically meaningful number of ballots from each county/precinct/whatever and hand checked those (I still don’t think they verified signatures or ensured envelopes matched the ballots - illegal). If enough of those turned out to be acceptable - under whose watchful eye, I do not know - then the entire county/precinct/whatever was declared acceptable as well, and the entire batch of original ballots was re-counted with the machine. Some of this is speculation on my part based on what I read and heard around the time of the “hand recount” in GA. Correct me if I’m wrong.