Resurrecting 2,000 Dead Mules
The Election Integrity Industrial Complex™ is all in a tizzy today over the release of Fulton County grand jury testimony in the Fani Willis case, specifically, testimony from former U.S. Senator David Perdue.
At issue is Perdue’s account of a conversation with then–GBI Director Vic Reynolds concerning allegations of ballot harvesting, the same allegations that formed the backbone of the so-called documentary 2000 Mules.
Strip away the breathless commentary, and the core claim is familiar: widespread, organized ballot harvesting altered the outcome of the 2020 election.
For those unfamiliar with the ominous-sounding term, “ballot harvesting” simply means an unauthorized person – someone other than a close family member or caregiver – collects a voter’s absentee ballot, promising to deliver it to the mail or an elections office.
The law exists for a straightforward reason: to prevent voters from being disenfranchised by bad actors who promise to deliver a ballot and instead discard it to manipulate an election’s outcome.
And the law is strict. If you offer to take your neighbor’s ballot to the elections office because you are already going to drop off your own, you have committed a crime under Georgia law.
It really is that simple.
Ballot harvesting is legal in many other states, often Democratic-leaning states, where political parties may even provide collection boxes for their own voters, and then the party drops off the collected ballots.
But it is illegal in Georgia and several other states, full stop.
That brings us back to the current frenzy.
According to Perdue’s sworn testimony, Reynolds told him there would be no further investigation into ballot harvesting. Reynolds allegedly explained, “We’re not going to investigate because… I’m a team player. If the governor doesn’t want to investigate, we’re not going to investigate.”
Cue the hysteria.
Just as they did with the now-discredited claim involving 315,000 ballots last December, the Election Integrity Industrial Complex™ has erupted across social media and private chat groups, proclaiming the discovery of yet another “smoking gun.” Proof of fraud. Fraud. FRAUD!!!
One exchange circulating among activists that PeachPundit has obtained is particularly revealing. Cobb County Elections Board member Debbie Fisher wrote to Bob Barker, legal counsel in several of the election conspiracy lawsuits, that she had “been saying since 2020” that Reynolds was brought in “to quash the investigations” in exchange for a judicial appointment, adding that her “conspiracy theory isn’t a conspiracy anymore.”
Barker responded by asking which legislator would move to impeach Governor Brian Kemp for failing to uphold his oath of office.
Fisher replied, “Maybe we can get Colton to say it so the <sic> can tackle him to the floor again.”
Barker closed with the rhetorical challenge: “Democrats would support the motion. How many Republicans have the guts?”
You can see the screenshots here, here, and here.
What is missing from all of this outrage is an understanding of how Georgia law actually works.
Ballot harvesting prosecutes the person who harvests the ballot. It does not punish the voter who entrusted their ballot to someone else.
If I am caught with 1,000 absentee ballots illegally collected from my neighbors, I go to prison. Their ballots are still delivered, validated, and counted.
That is not a loophole. That is the law.
No voter is disenfranchised unless there is evidence of ballot tampering. And there has never been evidence that the ballots associated with these allegations were altered, destroyed, or fraudulently cast.
Which raises an uncomfortable reality for those demanding investigations, indictments, and impeachments: even if every alleged harvester had been prosecuted, it would not have changed the outcome of the election.
There was never evidence put forward of fraudulent ballots, just claims of ballot harvesters. There was never evidence of altered results. And there was never a path, legal or factual, to overturning the election.
As reported by GatewayPundit, True the Vote, the organization that provided much of the “evidence” behind 2,000 Mules, is now claiming that they had the evidence, and Reynolds would not meet with them.
“According to reporting from Badlands Media, [True the Vote CEO Catherine] Engelbrecht said in a statement that the roles were actually reversed: True The Vote ‘made repeated attempts to re-engage with the GBI‘ following their one and only meeting in May….The suggestion that this stalled because we failed to provide an informant’s name simply isn’t accurate. We were shut out early, and as public pressure mounted, the focus shifted to blaming us rather than examining the evidence. At no point was there a serious effort to ask the kinds of questions a real investigation requires.“
That seems odd when you consider that when True the Vote had the opportunity to provide their evidence in court…and said they didn’t have any! Of course, we are talking about an organization whose leaders, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, were successfully sued for defamation.
Why the governor declined to pursue further investigation is something only he can answer. But the plausible reasons are obvious: weak evidence, the risk of prosecuting well-meaning citizens ignorant of a technical law, and the unavoidable conclusion that the election results would remain unchanged.
At some point, reality has to matter.
The Election Integrity Industrial Complex™ is no longer content with beating a dead horse. Now it is trying to resurrect dead mules. And as anyone familiar with Stephen King’s Pet Sematary can tell you, resurrecting dead animals never ends well.
