“Independent fact-checkers” backed by Big Tech have ignored facts presented by Republican figures to justify their own biased narratives.
"Independent fact-checkers" backed by Big Tech have ignored facts presented by Republican figures to justify their own biased narratives. The fact-checking rabbit hole has descended into partisan jabs since the explosive Georgia ballot-counting revelation video entered public light.
Here's what we do know:
On Election Night, ABC News reported that the election department sent the ballot counters at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta home at 10:30 pm.
NEW: The election department sent the ballot counters at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta home at 10:30 p.m., Regina Waller, the Fulton County public affairs manager for elections, tells ABC News. https://t.co/HgCtcXEka3
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics)
Newly-discovered security footage supported this live coverage in addition to witness testimony presented at the State Judiciary Committee hearing in Georgia on Thursday.
Attorney Jackie Pick, a volunteer aiding the case, testified that GOP poll watchers were instructed to leave for the night under false pretenses while the vote counting process continued after hours unmonitored.
The surveillance tapes verified Pick's claim, showing dozens of ballot counters, members of the press, and Republican observers leaving at the same time from the designated area.
After the mass exodus, a small remnant of about four workers are then seen on-camera revealing trunks containing thousands of ballots from underneath a table and running those through the tabulation machines.
President Donald Trump's campaign account circulated One America News Network's live coverage of the event with Georgia state legislators online.
Immediately after Team Trump uploaded the video evidence on Thursday, Twitter labeled the post "disputed." The warning label slapped on the tweet read: "This claim about election fraud is disputed."
WATCH: Video footage from Georgia shows suitcases filled with ballots pulled from under a table AFTER supervisors told poll workers to leave room and 4 people stayed behind to keep counting votes pic.twitter.com/AcbTI1pxn4
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump)
Social media posts sharing the video to Facebook and Instagram were flagged as part of "efforts to combat false news and misinformation" on news feeds, Politifact argued: "We rate these Facebook posts False."
Disregarding Politifact's track record of right-wing prejudice, Facebook had partnered with Politifact, appointing the Poynter Institute project as one of the site's chief policing powers.
Then on Friday morning, Lead Stories editor-in-chief Alan Duke—who co-founded the group after ending his 26-year CNN career—published an expose that purportedly debunked the security video. The Washington Post, Newsweek, and other left-wing outlets followed suit, criticizing journalists across the aisle who helped the clip gain traction.
The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway penned the conservative take on the fact-checking ring. "In fact, none of the claims made by the Republicans were debunked," she wrote on Monday.
Ironically, Hemingway herself was fact checked by the same fact-checkers she intended to fact check. "In a Kafka-esque twist, Facebook is now using Lead Stories to censor this story critical of Lead Stories," Hemingway noted at the piece's conclusion.
According to the company's "About" page, Lead Stories is funded by Facebook, Google, and ByteDance—the China Communist Party-linked owner of TikTok.
Facebook and Google have suppressed journalism deemed harmful to Democratic nominee Joe Biden's presidential chances while the Trump administration has contended that TikTok’s ties to the CCP poses a data-related security threat to the nation at-large.
Facebook just took note... ? pic.twitter.com/yLyQWoz7Ff
— (((Jason Epstein))) (@Southfive)
In Hemingway's takedown entitled "The Georgia Vote-Counting Video Was Not 'Debunked.' Not Even Close," she reported that government officials told Lead Stories the disputed ballots were placed in "standard containers"—not suitcases—and that "[t]he media and party observers were never told to leave because counting was over for the night."
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"Leaving aside whether relying solely and uncritically on government officials’ claims constitutes anything close to" the so-called "fact check," Hemingway quipped, Lead Stories just regurgitated talking points from election talking heads.
The "cutters" who open absentee ballot envelopes were dismissed for the night while ballot counters and scanners were retained. "[Reporters] just followed the 'cutters' as they left," Lead Stories asserted.
"Nobody told them to stay. Nobody told them to leave. Nobody gave them any advice on what they should do," Georgia Secretary of State chief investigator Frances Watson stated via phone, positioning that the area was "still open for them or the public to come back in to view at whatever time they wanted to, as long as they were still working."
Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer has consistently alleged the opposite, insisting that their exit was under order. "Fulton County told our observers last night to go home because they were closing up and then continued to count ballots in secret," he tweeted the afternoon following Election Day.
Fulton County told our observers last night to go home because they were closing up and then continued to count ballots in secret.
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer)
On Nov. 9, Shafer reiterated his initial allegation. "Let me repeat. Fulton County elections officials told the media and our observers that they were shutting down the tabulation center at State Farm Arena at 10:30 p.m. on election night only to continue counting ballots in secret until 1:00 a.m."
No one disputes that Fulton County elections officials falsely announced that the counting of ballots would stop at 10:30 p.m. No one disputes that Fulton County elected officials unlawfully resumed the counting of ballots after our observers left the center.
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer)
Shafer's claim is supported by the sworn affidavits of two state-level GOP field organizers, Cherokee County resident Mitchell Harrison and Cobb County resident Michelle Branton, who further allege they were kept an unreasonable distance from the ballot-counting process.
The video, which displays the room from four different angles, shows that the poll watchers were deterred from meaningful observation of the ballot handling.
In the first half of the 10 o’clock hour, a woman with blonde braids who appeared to be a supervisor "yelled out" to the room occupants that counting would resume in the morning.
On at least three separate occasions, the Republican poll watchers said they asked Fulton County elections spokesperson Regina Waller about the status of the ballot count but she refused to answer their questions.
Watson—who was informed by the media liaison "present" on Nov. 3—later told Lead Stories that "[t]here was never an announcement made to the media and other observers about the counting being over for the night and them needing to leave."
Although Lead Stories does not name the media liaison, Hemingway pointed out that Waller, the Fulton County public affairs manager for elections, was identified according to the affidavits.
"OK, so on the one hand you have sworn affidavits from observers saying that supervisors told ballot counters to go home for the evening shortly after 10 p.m. and a video showing everyone leaving en masse at that time. And on the other hand, you have two government officials promising that no one was told that counting was over. Is there any other evidence to consider?" Hemingway probed.
Moreover, Hemingway highlighted how the Republican observers' timeline matched up with what ABC News had reported. "Their source? Regina Waller," Hemingway snapped.
Numerous local news outlets also cited counting delays, including Atlanta's WGCL-TV and North Fulton Neighbor. "Fulton County officials say employees have tabulated all in-person votes and ceased counting absentee ballots for the night. Employees have been sent home and will finish counting in the morning, Nov. 4," the latter reported.
NBC journalists on-site confirmed "they were told counting was done for the night" and were given no indication that it would proceed again before the next morning. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution even reported an unexplained "plan" to stop scanning ballots at the same time the poll watchers said the operation was shut down: "No official could explain before press time why Fulton was stopping its count of absentee ballots at that time, only saying that was the procedure."
Incidentally, Hemingway remarked, most of the linked articles mention the major pipe burst story that prompted the evacuation direction.
The most recent Dec. 5 affidavit from the Secretary of State's office double downed: vote monitors were not told to leave and all just left spontaneously, conservative commentator Mike Cernovich cited the persisting argument.
Georgia Secretary of State / Brad Raffensperger’s office:
- Pipe didn’t burst it was just a urinal.
- Vote monitors weren’t told to leave; they all just left spontaneously. pic.twitter.com/6VEj6HA4e9
— Cerno (@Cernovich)
Watson testified in the document that the cause "initially reported as a water leak" late on Election Night was "actually a urinal that had overflowed early" in the morning of Nov. 3.
Her investigation allegedly discovered that the press and observers were "not asked to leave" and "simply left on their own." However, the ballots "that had already been opened but not counted" were placed in boxes, sealed up, and stored under the table, Watson went on.
"This was done because employees thought that they were done for the night and were closing up and ready to leave," she claimed. "When the counting continued into later in the night, those boxes were opened so that the ballots inside could then be counted."
Lead Stories emphasized that while partisan observers were absent, an unidentified "state election board monitor" was in attendance "who asked for his name not to be used due to safety concerns."
The anonymous source said that he was present at the vote counting location beginning at 11:52 p.m. and stayed until approximately 12:45 a.m. "That means there were neither partisan monitors nor the state election board monitor for more than an hour after ballots began being scanned at 10:35 p.m.," Hemingway specified.
According to Hemingway, the monitor admitted that he wasn’t present for much of the time in question, despite claims maintained by the Secretary of State’s office.
"Contrary to the media impression that a state monitor is sufficient oversight, the press and partisan observers are just as if not more important," Hemingway declared. "The false public claims about a pause in counting led to the departure of the press and Republican observers."
As for the Secretary of State's deputy chief investigator who arrived at the scene around 12:15 a.m. on Nov. 4 when the ballot-scanning activities were nearly completed, the video shows the person entering the large room, glancing around, and speaking on his phone.
Hemingway lambasted fact-checkers and other media giants for not inquiring what prompted an investigator to be dispatched to the State Farm Arena at that time.
Another "fact check" by Lead Stories alleged that the Republican campaign staffers assigned to observe the ballot counting did not swear under oath in affidavits that they were instructed to leave before vote tabulations ended on Election Night.
"The observers said they eventually followed those workers out, but they never claimed they were told to go, prevented from staying, or banned from returning," Lead Stories circumvented what had occurred.
Hemingway also fired back at Lead Stories for "falsely stating" that these accusations were the "cornerstone" of Trump’s challenge of Georgia despite the fact that the legal claim filed by president's attorneys only existed on one page of the 64-page complaint, she volleyed.
"Again, those claims have been corroborated, not debunked, by multiple press accounts from election night," Hemingway concluded.
