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By Editor Becky Watts
GRIFFIN - Pike County Times has attempted to follow up with the Secretary of State's (SOS) Office on the Spalding County case regarding ballot envelopes and voter information in the trash but has had no luck. After a terse back and forth set of emails, reps for the SOS finally said the following: "...Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(4), the Secretary of State’s Office is unable to produce the information pertaining to a pending investigation, therefore, the information is not publicly available at this time..." which is the answer that was expected.
The GRIP has attempted to follow up on this case with the Sheriff's Office and was advised that this was an open investigation so it would not turn over any information. However, Secretary of State Raffensperger publicly called for the resignation of Spalding County Elections Supervisor Marcia Ridley in a press release included at the bottom of this page. And Sen. Marty Harbin, Rep. David Knight and Rep. Karen Mathiak also called for her resignation. Ridley responded with a denial of wrongdoing that can be read by clicking here.
The turmoil has continued with a scheduled meeting of the Spalding County Board of Elections to discuss a legal challenge of 181 electors. According to The GRIP, the challenge was filed by Michelle Knight, who claims the 181 people currently registered to vote in Spalding County are ineligible to cast ballots in Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoff races that will be decided Jan. 5. In the Facebook Live broadcast of the meeting, Knight specified that she was not asking the Spalding County Board of Elections to remove anyone from the voter rolls but was asking them to look into this matter since the SOS Office had not "comprehensively reviewed the rolls" in 17 months. This article can be read by clicking here."
A further look of articles regarding the Spalding County Board of Elections include allegations of an illegal meeting and votes taken in private executive session outside public view with a subsequent request for the Attorney General to investigate. More can be read on The GRIP by clicking here.
Pike County Times is following The GRIP as Editor Sheila Mathews attends meetings and broadcasts live as well as writing what happens when the Spalding County Board of Elections meetings. It is a pleasure to be able to work with local newspapers both here at home and in neighboring counties to ensure that the public is updated on important matters such as free and fair elections which should concern everyone regardless of political affiliation.
Thank you for reading Pike County Times to keep up with the news!
Thank you to First Bank of Pike for sponsoring Pike County Times’ Breaking News Alerts! First Bank of Pike has been serving customers in Pike County and the surrounding area since 1901 and offers Personal and Business banking with a personal touch. Services include checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, and IRA’s. Mobile Banking and Bill Payment services are also available! Click here for more. Please let First Bank of Pike know that you appreciate their sponsorship of Breaking News Alerts on Pike County's only FREE online newspaper!
If you want to find out about how you can get Breaking News Alerts, click here. Thanks for reading and supporting Pike County Times.com!
By Editor Becky Watts
GRIFFIN - A crowd began to gather outside of the Spalding County Elections Office earlier this evening sometime around 6 p.m. By 7:12 p.m. Commissioner James Dutton was live on Facebook live showing how “The Spalding County elections office is actively "working" with the ballots behind closed doors and has repeatedly refused to allow the credentialed election observers into the building.”
He said that they began in back rooms but were now in the front rooms where people outside could see them through the glass. He said that State Republican Party attorneys were at the building earlier in the night where they were not allowed to enter the building either despite the fact that the ballots were out of their sealed containers. Dutton asked people to come out to the office to observe as well saying, “Now, right now is the time to protect the integrity of our election.
Readers can watch the Facebook Live video at www.facebook.com/jamesrdutton/videos/4092531324106554/ By 11 p.m. the video has been shared 713 times on Facebook and had been seen by over 11,000 people. The 44 minute video showed election workers inside of the building working with ballots, but they refused to let anyone in to observe.
By the end of the video, poll watchers were setting up to watch the building throughout the night and into tomorrow. Sheila Mathews from The GRIP also advised that she would be covering this tomorrow. Law enforcement had been called to stand in the office with the workers and to escort them to their cars when they left the building. The GRIP went live on Facebook around 10 p.m. tonight to let her readers know that the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office was taping off a dumpster behind the Spalding County Elections Office with criminal tape in order to begin an investigation on items related to the election were found in a dumpster.
Mathews advised that she did not handle any of the items inside of the dumpster but advised that “upon close observation,” she did not see any ballots. However, she saw information such that would be considered confidential records that should not be unsecured. She saw names, home addressed, full dates of birth, social security numbers and information that could be used for “nerfarious purposes if someone were so inclined.” Her original Facebook Live video can be seen at www.facebook.com/thegripnews/videos/1076060719491950.
Her second video is at https://www.facebook.com/thegripnews/videos/760814061182051 which was uploaded at 10:55 p.m. which advises that this dumpster is used by a number of Spalding County offices and not just the Elections Office. She reiterated in her second video that she “did not see ballots whatsoever” contained in the paperwork that was removed from the dumpster. However, she did say that there were envelopes that appeared to have previously contained absentee ballots but they were empty envelopes that had been discarded.
“We’re in the middle of a very contentious election,” she said. “And to avoid the appearance of impropriety, it is very, very crucial that this information be secured tonight” so that it will be documented what each document is to ensure that there are no questions about what was found in this dumpster. She stated that this is important because “our confidence in our nation’s election process does not need to be further eroded.” Within 30 minutes, over 2,000 people had viewed the video. Mathews will continue her coverage from tonight’s events through the day tomorrow. https://www.facebook.com/thegripnews.
Photos are still shots from the Facebook Live videos.
Thank you to First Bank of Pike for sponsoring Pike County Times’ Breaking News Alerts! First Bank of Pike has been serving customers in Pike County and the surrounding area since 1901 and offers Personal and Business banking with a personal touch. Services include checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, and IRA’s. Mobile Banking and Bill Payment services are also available! Click here for more. Please let First Bank of Pike know that you appreciate their sponsorship of Breaking News Alerts on Pike County's only FREE online newspaper!
If you want to find out about how you can get Breaking News Alerts, click here. Thanks for reading and supporting Pike County Times.com!
Courtesy of Editor Sheila Mathews of The GRIP
GRIFFIN - Spalding County Sheriff Darrell Dix has confirmed what The GRIP report Thursday night – that no ballots were found among the documents and other paperwork located in a dumpster in the Spalding County Elections and Voter Registration parking lot.
Click here for more.
Thank you to First Bank of Pike for sponsoring Pike County Times’ Breaking News Alerts! First Bank of Pike has been serving customers in Pike County and the surrounding area since 1901 and offers Personal and Business banking with a personal touch. Services include checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, and IRA’s. Mobile Banking and Bill Payment services are also available! Click here for more. Please let First Bank of Pike know that you appreciate their sponsorship of Breaking News Alerts on Pike County's only FREE online newspaper!
If you want to find out about how you can get Breaking News Alerts, click here. Thanks for reading and supporting Pike County Times.com!
Following Serious Management Issues
ATLANTA - Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called for the resignation or termination of Spalding County Elections Supervisor Marcia Ridley following serious management issues and poor decision-making during the November 3 general election.
“County elections officials are responsible for ensuring the voting process is smooth and efficient and must take responsibility when they fail,” said Secretary Raffensperger. “Georgians statewide waited on average just 3 minutes on Election Day but poor decision making in Spalding County denied those voters a quick and reliable voting experience. The serious management issues we saw in Spalding County on Election Day demonstrate that new leadership is needed to uphold election integrity there.”
Georgia’s November elections saw record turnout, record absentee ballot requests and ballots cast, and record early, in-person voting. On Election Day, voters cast their ballots in just 3 minutes statewide on average.
In Spalding County, however, voters faced mismanagement and poor decision-making that put the integrity of their vote at risk. Spalding County faced issues early in the morning getting their voting systems up and running on Election Day. If voting machines are not operating normally, county elections superintendents have been trained to use a number of workarounds to allow voters to cast ballots using the Ballot Marking Devices like all other voters. Additionally, if that is impossible, which was not the case in Spalding County, Georgia law instructs county elections superintendents to conduct voting in those location on emergency ballots, which are counted immediately after close of polls like other ballots cast in person on Election Day.
In Spalding County, none of that was done. Instead of using one of the many workarounds built into the system or using emergency ballots as required by law when the equipment is not working, Spalding County Elections Supervisor Marcia Ridley instructed elections workers to use provisional ballots, which are processed differently than regular ballots. This violated established election process and possibly, Georgia law.
Additionally, when asked about the issues faced in Spalding County on Election Day, Ridley claimed an “update” made to the voting system on the night before Election Day caused problems with the machines. No such update had been made nor had the voting machines been touched for days before the election.
By spreading this baseless and thoroughly inaccurate rumor, Ridley greatly harmed election integrity in Georgia and provided talking points for those looking to undermine elections in the Peach State.