Ga. elections chief seeks investigation of 3 counties over drop box violations

ATLANTA (WALB) - Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has referred three counties to be investigated for failing to do absentee ballot transfer forms, according to a release from his office.

Those counties are Coffee, Grady, and Taylor.

A total of 123 counties had absentee ballot drop boxes for the November 2020 election, according to Raffensperger.

Raffensperger said 120 counties “filled out and retained ballot transfer forms in accordance with Georgia rules.”

The ballot drop boxes were allowed because of an emergency rule from the state’s election board to address the surge of absentee voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rule, Raffensperger said, “required counties with drop boxes to fill out ballot transfer forms that included the date, time, location, and number of ballots in the drop boxes whenever election officials collected ballots from the drop box.”

The three counties accounted for 0.37% of all the absentee ballots cast in the November election, according to Raffensperger

“Since day one, I have made securing Georgia’s election a top priority and I have not stopped working since then,” Raffensperger said. “Though the overwhelming majority of counties did what they were supposed to, this demonstrates that new steps need to be taken to fully secure our elections. Securing elections is work that is never truly finished.”

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