Audit Cites Fulton County Elections Department for Security Lapses, Missing Routers, Financial Errors
In a surprise to no one who has been paying attention, an internal audit of the Registration and Elections Department of Fulton County, Georgia, concluded that the department failed to ensure the integrity of the 2020 election.
The alarming revelations were uncovered in a damning 11-page report released last week by the Office of the County Auditor. The scope of the audit was from Jan. 1, 2020, through April 2021.
The Fulton County elections department is responsible for registering voters, overseeing the allocation of voting machines, managing polling locations and ensuring the integrity of the voting process.
However, the county auditor found 11 major blunders committed by the department. Of particular concern were these shocking lapses:
- Inadequate safeguarding of assets.
- Lack of standard operating procedures.
- Inadequate oversight of financial transactions.
One of the most alarming revelations is that 15 routers apparently disappeared into thin air.
Routers connect computers to the internet and can store sensitive data such as administrative passwords and web browsing histories.
“We noted that fifteen (15) or 6% of the routers could not be physically located,” the report said.
“We were informed that the routers may have been sent to the wrong department for storage; however, as of the report date, the [Fulton County elections] department has not located these items.”
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The auditor’s office underscored that the “failure to maintain proper safeguarding of assets may lead to theft, unauthorized use of County property and inaccurate record keeping and reporting.”
The auditors are correct to worry about the potential theft of election assets.
In June, a security alarm inexplicably went off at a warehouse in Fulton County where 147,000 absentee ballots from the 2020 election were being housed.
At the time, Patrick Labat — the Democratic sheriff of Fulton County — said his office was investigating the incident. We still don’t know exactly what happened.
‘We can confirm that the security alarm was activated at the warehouse on Saturday. The matter is currently under review by FCSO,’ the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. https://t.co/eD40tjdyCB
— The Western Journal (@WestJournalism) June 7, 2021
Reminder: The Fulton County elections department has come under fire amid startling irregularities that occurred during the Nov. 3 election, including allegations of double-counting of votes and pallets of “missing” ballots.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson noted one involves claims that “at least 36 batches of mail-in ballots from the November election were double-counted” in then-candidate Joe Biden’s favor.
??”There was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County last November”??
“Votes in Fulton County were counted more than once”
More than 100,000 ballot tally sheets were missing for MONTHS after the election
Audit tally sheets showed fraudulent 100-0 results for Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/oXM6XTQ0sA
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) July 15, 2021
Another shocking conclusion of the county auditor’s report is that the elections department sloppily mismanaged its operations, which include oversight of voter registrations and voting locations.
Why? It had no standard operating procedures, according to the report.
There are SOPs in place if you work at a Subway sandwich store or a McDonald’s restaurant. Why were there none for managing a presidential election?
“It appears that management has not drafted and approved departmental standard operating procedures nor communicated these procedures to staff as management informed us that they were currently updating some of their procedures,” the auditor’s report noted.
“The lack of departmental SOPs may impede the timely completion of routine tasks, decrease efficiency, and hinder quality through systemic homogenization. SOPs will also prove to be ineffective and unused if they are not current, aligned with State guidelines, and properly implemented.”
The lack of uniform standards for running an election can lead to bizarre scenes — such as the one below — and accusations of unethical or criminal behavior.
Even if nothing illegal happened, the optics are terrible and cause voters to doubt the integrity of the election process. Without fair and free elections, there is no democracy.
Caught on candid camera…
Fulton County supervisors in Georgia tell poll workers, press and observers to leave the room…
And then pull out SUITCASES of ballots.
Say it with me… F R A U D.
WHERE IS THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE?”pic.twitter.com/1Nc8cZqGXA
— Rep. Jody Hice (@CongressmanHice) December 3, 2020
Along the same vein, the auditor’s office concluded that the Fulton County elections department failed to keep accurate records to account for all the money it spent.
Fulton County Audit by The Western Journal
“We sampled invoice files for transactions that occurred during the scope of our audit and noted the department did not maintain records for professional services, including overtime, totaling $1,965,260,” the report said.
This abysmal lack of proper recordkeeping resulted in Fulton County being “billed 4 times” the amount for a particular service, the report said.
“Failure to maintain supporting documentation may cause overpayment of expenses, unauthorized charges, lack of County oversight, and incorrect financial reporting,” the auditors warned.
Essentially, the auditor’s report shows that Fulton County needs to clean up its act if it doesn’t want voters to doubt whether the elections it oversees are conducted properly.
Election integrity and voter fraud are among the top issues on Americans’ minds as we inch closer to the 2022 midterms and the 2024 general elections.
An increasing number of Americans are skeptical about the Nov. 3 election, with more voters now favoring forensic audits to affirm the authenticity of the stated results.
Last month, a Rasmussen poll found that 55 percent of likely voters support forensic audits to ensure there was no voter fraud.
Moreover, a whopping 41 percent of likely voters do not believe that Biden won the election fairly.
Demanding fair elections is not a partisan issue. Everyone should want to ensure that voter fraud does not occur, whether it’s a local election or a national one.
If you oppose forensic audits of questionable outcomes or object to measures being put in place to ensure that only eligible Americans vote, then you’re part of the problem.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
