State details of AP’s review of potential voter fraud cases

Details from The Associated Press review of potential voter fraud cases in the six political battleground states where former President Donald Trump and his allies disputed his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

ARIZONA

2020 RESULT: Biden won by 10,457 votes. HOW IT WAS REPORTED: An AP reporter submitted public records requests to Arizona’s 15 counties, along with requesting information from the state attorney general’s office, which has been reviewing potential cases as part of an Election Integrity Unit created in 2019 to identify potential cases of fraud.

WHAT AP FOUND: In all, 198 instances of potential fraud were identified in six counties, representing 1.9% of Biden’s margin of victory. The vast majority of the potential instances of fraud identified were in Pima County, which includes Tucson. Nine counties reported no suspicious activity. Nine people have been charged so far, including six cases pursued by the state attorney general’s office, which has an election integrity unit that is reviewing an undisclosed number of additional cases. HIGHLIGHTS: Many of the cases involved allegations of people casting multiple ballots, felons voting despite being ineligible and ballots received in the name of voters who are dead.

CASE DETAILS: Of the 176 instances of potential fraud identified in Pima County, 151 were referred to prosecutors. The county has a practice of referring every effort to cast a second ballot to prosecutors for review, something other offices don’t do. Election officials said 25 instances involved voters over the age of 70 and were not referred since there was a greater chance those were the result of memory lapses or confusion and not criminal intent. None of the Pima County cases involved a voter successfully voting twice. Four of the charged cases involved a relative successfully mailing in their dead relative’s ballot, which was counted. One was charged by the attorney general and three by county prosecutors. Five of the state’s six cases involve Pima County felons accused of voting while being ineligible.

GEORGIA

2020 RESULT: Biden won Georgia by 11,779 votes. HOW IT WAS REPORTED: Via phone or email, an AP reporter contacted the elections office in all of Georgia’s 159 counties. The AP requested information about all instances of potential voter fraud they identified and whether they were referred for further investigation to local or state prosecutors or to the secretary of state’s office. Officials in 11 counties did not respond to numerous inquiries or declined to provide information.

WHAT AP FOUND: In Georgia, 124 counties reported no suspicious voter activity surrounding the 2020 election. This included Democratic counties such as Fulton, swing counties such as Gwinnett and Republican counties such as Cherokee. In all, 64 instances of potential fraud were identified in 24 counties, representing 0.54% of Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia. Most of the counties that did not respond to the AP inquiries or declined to answer were rural counties that largely backed Republicans. The state attorney general’s office is reviewing about 20 cases referred so far by the state election board related to 2020 elections, including the primary. Officials said these were not referred as criminal cases and will likely be resolved with civil penalties. It’s unknown how many may overlap with instances identified by local election officials in AP’s review.

HIGHLIGHTS: Of the 64 potential cases identified by the counties, 31 were determined to be the result of an administrative error or some other mistake. The rest are being investigated. Nearly half the instances reported by Georgia counties stemmed from inquiries made by state investigators. In several instances, county officials said their research conducted for the state did not indicate fraud. For instance, Camden County officials said they researched the voting history of three people at the request of the state and found nothing unusual. CASE DETAILS: Cobb County election officials said they had flagged eight instances of potential fraud, but an exhaustive review determined none were actual fraud.

MICHIGAN… Long Article

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-arizona-donald-trump-voter-registration-tucson-c64bba90b8c074bf8bdfd2c751b6b0f2