Judge: 2020 Election Records in Key Georgia County Must Be Preserved Indefinitely

A Georgia Republican candidate for governor sued to have 147,000 absentee ballots from his 2020 Senate race forensically audited to find fraud.

While former U.S. Senator David Perdue said he is not looking to overturn the 2020 election results, he alleges fraud and/or incompetence harmed him and voters. Previous legal actions seeking to inspect ballots in the hotly contested general election have generally been tossed by judges citing various procedural technicalities.

A similar action brought by Garland Favorito in October 2021 also asked the court for permission to inspect the 147,000 absentee ballots they suspected of containing evidence of fraud. That lawsuit was dismissed by Superior Court Judge Brian Amero who reportedly based his decision on the legal principle that plaintiffs had not suffered a specific injury that would give them standing to sue.

Perdue, on the other hand, can claim his electoral loss constitutes a specific injury, allowing him to sue. His claim to have standing was bolstered by including a voter who claims a speciic injury.

“Petitioner [Elizabeth] Lennon suffered a specific injury to herself when she attempted to vote in-person but was informed by Fulton County Board of Election personnel that she had previously voted by an absentee mail-in ballot, which she did not,” lawyers for the plaintiffs allege.

The defeated senator sued a county election official and workers reporting to him, claiming election officials “negligently, grossly negligently or intentionally engaged in and/or permitted multiple unlawful election acts.”

“David Perdue wants to use his position and legal standing to shine light on what he knows were serious violations of Georgia law in the Fulton absentee ballot tabulation,” said his attorney, Bob Cheeley, according to a report in “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution”.

He scored an important point with a favorable ruling by a Georgia judge Thursday.

“The court finds it appropriate to include an additional layer of security by ordering that the records and information … are maintained by the Clerk of Court indefinitely until further order of this Court,” wrote Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.