ATLANTA – State Representatives David Knight (R-Griffin) and Karen Mathiak (R-Griffin), who are members of the Spalding County Legislative Delegation, continue to push the investigation into the Spalding County Board of Elections (BOE) and the Spalding County elections supervisor to evaluate the handling of the Nov. 3 election in accordance with Georgia law and election rules and regulations. Knight and Mathiak wish to highlight the mismanagement and unlawful events that they believe to have occurred leading up to Nov. 3, as well as on Election Day and thereafter.
“There have been several unsubstantiated claims made by local elections officials who submit that that no human error occurred on Election Day in Spalding County, which is completely false and a total mischaracterization of the events that occurred on, and leading up to, Nov. 3,” said Rep. Knight. “The elections supervisor previously stated that logic and accuracy testing of the voting machines was completed in advance, but we now know that this is false. Also, the BOE chair recently stated in a public board meeting that poll managers have received additional training since Nov. 3, and in the same meeting, she claimed that she has not received any complaints regarding the handling of the election. The truth is, as of Dec. 16, no additional training has actually taken place. This ultimately boils down to a lack of training and complete disregard for the laws and policies that have been put in place to ensure fair and accurate elections.”
Reps. Knight and Mathiak believe that failures initially occurred when the elections supervisor failed to conduct proper and required logic and accuracy testing of the county’s voting machines before the machines were delivered to polling locations throughout Spalding County. According to the Secretary of State’s Rules of the State Election Board regarding logic and accuracy testing, “On or before the third day preceding a primary or election… the election superintendent shall commence the preparation and testing of the electronic poll books, electronic ballot markers, printers, and ballot scanners for use on Election Day.” As a part of this testing, elections supervisors are also instructed to check that the electronic poll books accurately look up and check-in voters via both the scanning function and manual lookup and create a voter access card that pulls up the correct ballot on the electronic ballot marker for every applicable ballot style. Knight and Mathiak believe that such testing never took place and that reported issues would not have occurred on Election Day had proper testing been done.
Furthermore, when voting issues did arise on the morning of Nov. 3, Knight and Mathiak assert that official backup procedures were not followed as prescribed by the Secretary of State. Georgia law, as well as the Georgia Poll Worker Training Manual, states: “If an emergency situation makes utilizing the electronic ballot markers impossible or impracticable, as determined by the election superintendent, the poll officer shall issue the voter an emergency paper ballot that is to be filled out with a pen after verifying the identity of the voter and that the person is a registered voter of the precinct. Emergency paper ballots shall not be treated as provisional ballots, but instead shall be placed into the scanner in the same manner that printed ballots in the polling place are scanned.” However, Knight and Mathiak call attention to reports that the Spalding County elections supervisor failed to instruct poll workers to issue emergency ballots and instead issued provisional ballots to voters who showed up Tuesday morning to cast their vote.
“This is a serious issue, and Spalding County voters deserve better,” said Rep. Mathiak. “We want an investigation of the complaints regarding the chain of custody of ballots for the Nov. 3 election, including how ballots were secured when being moved from polling locations to the elections office. The board needs to report how many ballots were delivered to the polls, how many were used and how many were returned, and they should provide details on the security measures in place for such ballots, if these ballots were numbered and if there were signatures for the delivered ballots to each polling site. We must take these necessary steps to restore the integrity of our elections.”
Reps. Knight and Mathiak call for the board to immediately address why poll managers were not trained to perform two different emergency backup procedures as instructed in the August 2020 Secretary of State’s Georgia Poll Worker Training Manual, including manually programing the BMD with proper access codes in the event of machine malfunctions and the use of emergency ballots.
Knight and Mathiak also refute claims made by the Spalding County elections supervisor, which indicated that the issues that occurred on Election Day were due to a voting software update made the night before. The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office previously indicated that no updates had been made to such software and that records also showed that the voting machines in question had not been touched for days leading up to the election.
The Spalding County Board of Elections recently held two meetings in which they had the opportunity to address inefficiencies that occurred during the Nov. 3 election, but Reps. Knight and Mathiak state that the issues were never addressed. Knight and Mathiak condemn the board’s failure to address and correct training inefficiencies and other violations, as well as the board’s recent vote of confidence for the Spalding County election supervisor, who Knight and Mathiak previously called on to resign or be terminated as a result of the handling of the Nov. 3 election. They also urge the removal of board members who voted in support of the elections supervisor.
To view a copy of the Secretary of State’s Georgia Poll Worker Training Manual, please click here. Information about backup procedures can be found on pages 71-72.
To view the Secretary of State’s rules and regulations related to logic and accuracy testing (Rule 183-1-12-08), please click here. Please note that this link requires you to provide your name to access this page.
Representative David Knight represents the citizens of District 130, which includes portions of Henry, Lamar and Spalding counties. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2004 and currently serves as Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education. He also serves on the Banks & Banking, Higher Education, Rules, Small Business Development and Ways & Means committees.
Representative Karen Mathiak represents the citizens of District 73, which includes portions of Fayette, Henry and Spalding counties. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2016 and currently serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Resources, Health & Human Services, Higher Education, Insurance and State Planning & Community Affairs committees.
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