Fulton Decides to Pour Gas on the Conspiracy Theory Bonfire

“Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity.” – Hanlon’s razor

But boy the Fulton County Elections office is making it hard!

I originally started writing this post on Saturday, November 2nd. When it was finished, I decided to not publish it because it makes Josh McKoon look disingenuous and I thought it would just look like I was being petty. I learned late Friday night that there was a controversy brewing, but because I can no longer take the GAGOP at their word about anything, I decided that it was more important to be informed on what was actually happening than just take their word for it. When I verified what was actually happening, I am glad that I did not simply react in outrage just because Chairman McKoon said we should be outraged. But Chairman McKoon called us out for not speaking out saying that our silence was deafening, even though he has yet to even acknowledge that a member of the GAGOP State Committee has a podcast hosted on an antisemitic media network. Your silence is indeed deafening, Josh.

Here’s the previously unpublished post.

We noticed late Friday night that the folks over at the Georgia Republican Party were pretty fired up about the fact that Fulton County decided to open their offices over the weekend so that voters could hand in their ballots. The Georgia GOP’s official statement made it seem like election officials were leaving their ballot drop boxes open, but state law specifically states ballot drop boxes must be shutdown when the early voting period ends, which was Friday the 1st.

But alas, you cannot rely on a statement from the Georgia GOP to offer an accurate assessment of what is actually happening because this had absolutely nothing to do with ballot drop boxes.

In fact there is nothing in law that prevents an election office from being open this weekend for voters to drop off their ballots. The boxes remained closed, but voters were able to hand their ballot in to a person over the counter. This by itself should not be a scandal, but it is increasingly evident that the GAGOP wants there to be as much confusion around the election as possible and they are more than willing to present a false narrative, like saying these counties who decided to open this weekend are breaking the law about drop boxes when no drop boxes were used.

But the law as written didn’t stop the GAGOP from going to court Saturday, where they were handed yet another loss because they tried to tell a judge that the law does not allow for an over the counter delivery of a ballot until Tuesday unless it is via the US Postal Service.

Per the AJC: “[GAGOP Attorney Alex] Kaufman then argued that voters should be blocked from hand-delivering their ballots between the close of early in-person voting on Friday and the beginning of Election Day on Tuesday, even though he said it was fine for ballots to arrive by mail during that period. It has long been the practice for Georgia election offices to accept mail ballots over the counter.”

It occurs to me that Hanlon’s razor applies here, too. But I digress.

“If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts; if you have the law on your side, pound the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table.” – An old adage in the lawyer world

Thus McKoon has once again found neither facts nor law on his side, and instead has decided to pound the table. Like a child throwing a tantrum, he is lashing out. But the truth here is that Josh McKoon just got Bill Belichicked, that is, he got out played using the law as it is written.

For those who do not follow sportsball or understand the reference, Bill Belichick was a head coach in the NFL who took time to study the rulebook and use it to his advantage. In one instance he realized he could burn off the game clock late in the game by intentionally committing dead ball penalties. A development his opponents pounded the table about, but was perfectly legal at the time. In an instance where Belichick had created a double edged sword, the new rule interpretation would be used against him in the playoffs later that year, when he would lose the game.

It is perfectly acceptable to raise an eyebrow about how some voters in Georgia were given unequal opportunity to turn in their ballot depending on where they lived in the state. It is another entirely to lie about drop boxes remaining open. And in this instance, the GAGOP got outplayed and rather than acknowledge what happened with ballots coming in to be hand delivered to election offices, they created a false narrative to sow distrust. Maybe it would have been better to get all counties to accept ballots this weekend, something the GAGOP could have done. Especially since Fulton was not the only county where voters were allowed to drop off their ballots.

But it would be unfair to the GAGOP to not acknowledge the reason the headline is written the way that it is. Because what Fulton County did next was reason enough by itself to get anyone upset. Someone over at the Fulton County Elections Office made the dumbest decision one could possibly make at a time like this; they sent out a notice Saturday morning that no observers would be allowed to observe folks handing over their absentee ballots.

Peach Pundit has obtained a copy of that email, which contains the following;

“FYI – There are NO WATCHERS approved for ballot drop off! Do not let them in the building. If they want to observe from the parking lot, you can’t stop that but they are not allowed to sit in the building. Have your security detail enforce it!!!”

I did not add the three exclamations, they are actually in there. Also noteworthy, we are not publishing the email because we feel it would only create an opportunity for doxing, and we bet the people who have been posting it on social media already know that is what is going to happen.

I am told by a source with familiarity of the situation that the reasoning for not allowing observers was that the election workers feared the Republican observers. I am having a really hard time buying that for no other reason than in the same email banning the observers, they mention a security detail.

Now look, I have been the target of some pretty vitriolic rhetoric since the GAGOP has decided to completely misrepresent the lawsuit I brought against the state. In fact some of those messages rise to the level of being threatening. I can imagine that these workers have been subjected to a similar experience so it is possible that they may feel that way. But you have a security detail that is capable of keeping them out of the building?

Wouldn’t that mitigate the risk? And there are going to be other days this coming week when these folks are going to be statutorily required to watch your work. Why not err on the side of transparency at a time when we are feeling the pressure of an impending powder keg?

It was a moronic decision.

One does not need the spiritual gift of prophesy to know that conspiracy theorists are just waiting to pounce on this type of development. Fulton county poured jet fuel on the bonfire.

I am told by early afternoon Fulton County relented and allowed the observers in. I have also asked for the total number of ballots that were received prior to the observers being allowed in. I feel that has the potential the be an important detail in the coming days if the election should become contested in someway. And whoever made the decision to prevent observers from being in the building should be removed.

If the party had made their argument around equal protection and how some voters are getting an extra opportunity to cast their ballots that millions of other Georgians were not, they would have made sense. But they chose to lie about this being about drop boxes. Which makes me wonder what else they will be willing to lie about in the coming days. All I know for sure is that I cannot trust the info coming from the GAGOP, and rather than just take them at their word, everything they say will need to be verified. And that is going to take time that I am afraid we will not have. All the more reason why decisions like disallowing observers, whether malicious or stupid, should be widely condemned.