{"id":20047,"date":"2020-12-27T09:58:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T14:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=20047"},"modified":"2020-12-27T10:02:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T15:02:27","slug":"investigation-shows-no-evidence-of-ballot-harvesting-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=20047","title":{"rendered":"Investigation shows no evidence of ballot harvesting in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2013 A statistical analysis of the Nov. 3 election in Georgia showed no incidents of ballot harvesting, according to a federally funded research and development nonprofit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The MITRE Corporation&#8217;s National Election Security Lab analyzed the 38 addresses in Georgia where more than 20 absentee ballots were received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lab&#8217;s analysis of absentee ballots requested compared with absentee ballots returned determined no statistical anomalies that would be associated with ballot harvesting existed, and the 38 locations were multiresident locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The <a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/2018\/11\/13\/judge-orders-georgia-secretary-of-state-to-extend-certification-deadline-and-count-provisional-ballots\/\">Georgia Secretary of State<\/a> engaged MITRE to assess the Georgia electoral process and results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election,&#8221; said Jerry Hogge, senior vice president and general manager of MITRE Public Sector. &#8220;Based upon our analysis of the data provided by Georgia\u2019s Secretary of State, we have concluded that there are no indications of alleged ballot harvesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 38 locations included <a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/2020\/09\/02\/elizabeth-warren-wants-to-investigate-georgia-college-dorm-operator\/\">colleges or university dorms<\/a>, apartment buildings, senior living facilities, RV parks, health care facilities, homeless shelters, jails, a boarding school and a monastery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis report by MITRE is nothing less than a resounding victory for secure elections and voter integrity in Georgia,\u201d Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. \u201cBallot harvesting can be a major source of voter fraud and can undermine the integrity of the vote. We made stopping ballot harvesting a top priority, and this report shows that we have succeeded in effectively eliminating the practice in Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The results of Georgia&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/2020\/04\/14\/vernon-jones-endorses-donald-trump-for-president\/\">presidential election, which showed President-elect Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump<\/a>, have been counted three times amid criticism and voter fraud claims by Trump and his supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raffensperger&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/georgia\/georgia-announces-full-hand-recount-in-presidential-race\/article_8220eb98-243b-11eb-90ad-77f8681b70f9.html\" target=\"_blank\">ordered a hand recount and audit<\/a>&nbsp;of the initial results to &#8220;help build confidence&#8221; in the election. The&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/georgia\/second-presidential-election-recount-in-georgia-on-its-way\/article_41111024-2db9-11eb-b491-5ff632f590c7.html\" target=\"_blank\">Trump campaign then requested a recount<\/a>&nbsp;after the audit, which showed Biden won by more than 11,000 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/2020\/11\/06\/georgias-republican-elections-chief-defends-vote-count-against-trump-attacks\/\">Trump repeatedly has attacked<\/a> Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/2018\/04\/29\/brian-kemp-gets-out-his-gun-in-new-campaign-ad\/\">Brian Kemp<\/a> and Raffensperger for not doing more to reverse the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raffensperger&#8217;s office has&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/georgia\/georgia-launches-investigation-into-coffee-countys-recount-procedures\/article_4f662a3a-3aff-11eb-abd2-b722d094eb24.html\" target=\"_blank\">launched an investigation<\/a>&nbsp;into Coffee County&#8217;s recount procedures and a&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/georgia\/georgia-secretary-of-state-will-audit-cobb-county-absentee-ballot-signatures\/article_2ee8a324-3ef0-11eb-9fba-a302cfe3ef19.html\" target=\"_blank\">signature match audit of absentee ballots<\/a>&nbsp;in Cobb County. Neither act will reverse the outcome of the election, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers from the University of Georgia also will help Raffensperger&#8217;s office conduct a&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/georgia\/university-of-georgia-to-help-conduct-statewide-review-of-absentee-ballot-signature-matches\/article_fa1887cc-408e-11eb-a68f-cbb59c5b5043.html\" target=\"_blank\">review of absentee ballot voting signatures<\/a>&nbsp;from the 2020 presidential election. Raffensperger said the statewide review is aimed at increasing confidence in the <a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/2020\/12\/23\/georgia-elections-chief-wants-to-end-no-excuse-absentee-voting\/\">absentee voting<\/a> process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Georgia banned ballot harvesting in 2019. The practice entails the collection and delivery of numerous <a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/2018\/11\/15\/new-ruling-orders-georgia-to-count-absentee-ballots-that-were-rejected-for-birthdate-errors\/\">absentee ballots<\/a> by an individual or group for people with which they have no connection.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(The Center Square) \u2013 A statistical analysis of the Nov. 3 election in Georgia showed no incidents of ballot harvesting, according to a federally funded research and development nonprofit. The MITRE Corporation&#8217;s National Election Security Lab analyzed the 38 addresses in Georgia where more than 20 absentee ballots were received. The lab&#8217;s analysis of absentee [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[8549,8514,8782,8474],"class_list":["post-20047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-brad-raffensperger","tag-election","tag-georgia","tag-sun","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}