乔治亚的顶端选举官员们周二说，有多达1000个潜在的投票者投了两次票缺席选举人票一个是在选举日，在6月份，在大约100个县进行总统和州级初选以及八月的决选。
“让我明确一点:在佐治亚州双重投票是重罪，我们起诉。...双重选民确切知道他们在做什么，稀释每个选民的选票...这符合法律。共和党人、美国国务卿布拉德·拉芬伯格(Brad Raffensperger)说，他的办公室将努力防止这种情况在11月份发生，但没有详细说明他计划如何做。
Raffensperger说，如果他们想接手这些案件，他的办公室将把嫌疑案件移交给州检察长、地方检察官以及联邦检察官。他称双重投票是“严重的重罪”，并指出，如果被判有罪，投票两次的选民将面临最少一年的监禁，最长10年的监禁，外加高达10万美元的罚款。
这位部长在结束新闻发布会时明确表示，“双重投票在法律上没有任何借口。”然而，一些选举专家对这种多次双重投票的情况表示怀疑，并指出投票工作人员的数据输入错误或管理失误，如错误地向选民发出定期投票而不是临时投票，可能会导致这种情况的发生。
他说，“其中一些(选票)确实出现在选举结果中，”选举结果必须在每次选举的17天内得到证明，但这些选票并不影响任何选举的结果。当被问及是否所有所谓的双重投票都被计算在内时，国务卿发言人沃尔特·琼斯表示，调查正在进行，并将调查“是否为同一个人计算了两票。”
Raffensperger一再声称这些选民“知道他们在做什么”，这不是系统故障的结果，但他没有提供任何证据来支持这一说法。这些案件都没有经过充分调查或审判。
“这不是制度。这是县选举官员，但也是选民知道他们在做什么，然后对他们施加压力，并利用该系统，县已到位的协议。”“但真正对此负责的是选民。他们寄回了选票，他们知道他们有一张选票被退回了。他们知道自己在做什么。”
格里芬/盖蒂影像公司
2020年1月20日，在亚特兰大埃比尼泽浸礼会教堂举行的马丁·路德·金纪念仪式上，佐治亚州国务卿布拉德·拉芬伯格发表讲话。
然而，当被问及如何知道这些所谓的双重选民的动机时，拉芬伯格说，这就是为什么要进行调查，并引用了一位选民的话，他说他“在隆县吹嘘这件事。”新闻发布会上没有概述任何关于所谓选民欺诈的额外证据。
随着冠状病毒在美国的持续流行，各州已经采取行动，让邮寄投票变得更加容易。随着这件事的进展，唐纳德·特朗普总统一直声称——没有证据——大量邮寄投票将导致广泛的选民欺诈。选举官员一再声称这一指控是没有根据的。
迈克尔·麦克唐纳是佛罗里达大学的政治学教授，他的专长是美国选举，他对部长声称的许多双重投票的情况持怀疑态度。麦当劳卷入了针对国务卿办公室的公平竞争行动的诉讼，但该诉讼不涉及周二的公告。
麦克唐纳告诉美国广播公司新闻:“这些年来，我们已经多次看到这些指控，在不同的伪装下，有耸人听闻的舞弊指控，然后经过进一步调查，这些指控解开。”“可能还有一些人投了两次票。...但这些耸人听闻的数字，在指控的最初阶段，就像1000人的双重投票一样，经过更仔细的调查，它们几乎是站不住脚的。”
在推特上，麦克唐纳提到了《公共报》和《亚特兰大宪法日报》的一篇报道，报道称执法记录最终推翻了现任州长、前国务卿布莱恩·肯普的指控。就在2018年州长选举的前两天，他还是共和党候选人。坎普声称，该州民主党参与了一次不成功的黑客攻击该州选民登记档案的企图，这是不真实的。
佐治亚州民主党执行董事斯科特·霍根(Scott Hogan)指责拉芬伯格宣扬“阴谋论和虚假信息。”
霍根在一份声明中说:“选民欺诈在格鲁吉亚仍然极为罕见，否则任何暗示都会破坏我们的选举。”“很明显，国务卿非但没有做好促进我们投票过程的安全和安保的工作，反而在推动共和党的投票阴谋论和虚假信息，他在法庭上竭力让选民不那么容易通过邮件投票。”
拉芬伯格的声明也被猛烈抨击由格鲁吉亚选民授权工作队，一个由几个组织支持的团体，包括史黛西·艾布拉姆斯的投票倡导团体公平战斗行动佐治亚州全国有色人种协进会和黑人选民问题。
“拉芬斯伯格部长的盛大新闻发布会是为了转移人们对他工作失败的注意力。”在他所谓的领导和他主持的选举的“崩溃”下，格鲁吉亚人在投票和计票方面面临障碍。”“现在，不出所料，格鲁吉亚失败的最高选举官员决定在全国范围内推行右翼言论，而不是专注于保护每个格鲁吉亚人的宪法权利。”
在新闻发布会上，拉芬伯格还被问及如何——如果系统运行正常——有人可以成功地投出缺席票并亲自投票。
Raffensperger说:“在选举日，它变得非常忙碌，当你在许多选民的许多球杂耍，如果你不回去-回到系统和检查它，那么这将是如何实际通过，所以它没有记录在选区一级。”
这与选举管理专家安珀·麦克雷诺兹告诉美国广播公司的内容一致。她说，如果这些所谓的双重投票的情况持续下去，很可能是由于程序性失败。
“我的猜测是，这是一个程序问题，因为应该发生的事情——特别是在你必须要求投票的州——是，如果你出现，他们不能确定你是否已经返回投票，你投票临时(投票)。因此，如果(投票工作人员)让他们在没有经过投票过程的情况下亲自投票，那么这就是一个程序问题，而不是其他任何问题。”
她继续说道:“当你考虑风险和选举时，当你在投票站进行所有这些现场流程，并且每个投票站都有不同的负责人时，你就有投票站工作人员不遵守程序的风险。据我所知，这就是问题所在——民意调查人员犯了错误。”
通常情况下，只有大约5%的佐治亚州选民投缺席票，但通过这种方式投票的选民明显增加了，尤其是在初选时，当部长办公室主动出击时邮寄申请所有690万活跃选民要求缺席投票。麦克雷诺兹的组织已经就扩大缺席投票系统的最佳实践向拉芬伯格的办公室提出了建议，她之前告诉美国广播公司新闻。
拉夫森伯格在新闻发布会上说，在大选中，可能有近50%的选票是通过缺席投票的方式投出的。他补充说，已经有大约90万选民要求进行缺席投票。
佛罗里达州教授麦克唐纳周二告诉美国广播公司新闻，他和其他研究人员检查了佐治亚州6月初选的数据，并对选民投票被拒绝或取消的所有原因进行了分类，他们发现，根据他们的分析，有近7万名选民获得了缺席投票，但随后亲自投票。然而，他说，数据的输入方式并不统一，甚至在县内也是如此，对于这个特殊的问题，有超过1000个独特的理由——他们在要求缺席投票后亲自投票。
布林·安德森/美联社
2020年6月9日，亚特兰大，人们在公园酒馆排队等待投票。
他说，如果一位选民在寄回缺席选票后亲自去投票，系统检查应该会阻止两张选票被计算在内。
他说，担心缺席选票无法及时到达进行统计的选民有可能亲自出现在投票站进行投票，甚至有可能在现场向选举官员明确表示——但这种情况在系统中可能并不常见。
“你真的是在受某人的摆布，他只是做这个数据输入来使一个符号正确，这将描述选民的情况。如果他们不能正确地取消投票——他们没有正确地把它输入系统——这也可能导致选民的出现...故意试图投票两次，而事实上，他们只是关心自己的处境，并试图确保他们的投票是真实的，确实是有价值的。这就是为什么每当我们有这些指控，执法部门需要跟进他们。”
上周，特朗普似乎不止一次鼓励他的支持者尝试投票两次在11月的选举中。
“在选举日或提前投票时，去你的投票站，即使你已经寄出了(你的选票)。去你的投票站看看你的邮件中的投票是否已经被列成表格或者统计过了。如果有，你将不能投票，因为它将被计算在内。你将不能投票，系统中的邮件正常工作。特朗普周五在北卡罗莱纳州的一次“电视拉力赛”上表示:“但这很有可能无法正常运作。”
周三，他在北卡罗莱纳州首次发表类似言论后，北卡罗莱纳州选举委员会执行主任发表声明，告诉选民不要这样做。
“国家委员会办公室强烈反对人们在选举日出现在投票站检查他们的缺席选票是否被计算在内。这是不必要的，这将导致更长的线路和传播新冠肺炎的可能性。”
在至少40个州，选民有办法追踪他们的邮寄选票，以确保他们被选举官员收到。
Georgia secretary of state alleges up to 1,000 cases of 'double voting' in primary, runoff elections
Georgia's topelectionofficial said Tuesday that there were up to 1,000 potential instances of voters casting two ballots -- one byabsentee ballotand one in person on election day -- across about 100 counties during the Junepresidential and statewide primariesand the August runoff elections.
"Let me be clear: It is a felony to double vote in Georgia, and we prosecute. ... A double voter knows exactly what they're doing, diluting the votes of each and every voter ... that follows the law. Those that make the choice to game the system are breaking the law, and as secretary of state, I will not tolerate it," Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said, adding that his office will work to prevent this from happening in November, but not detailing exactly how he plans to do that.
Raffensperger said that his office will be turning the suspected cases over to the state attorney general, local district attorneys and also federal prosecuting attorneys, should they want to take on these cases. He called double voting a "serious felony," noting that if convicted, voters who cast two ballots face a minimum sentence of one year in prison, and a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, plus up to a $100,000 fine.
The secretary asserted that "there's no excuse under the law for double voting," ending his news conference by specifically saying that "intentionality is not an excuse under the law." However, several election experts were skeptical of this many instances of doubling voting, and noted that poll worker data input errors or administrative failures, like wrongly issuing a regular ballot to a voter instead of a provisional one, could lead to this happening.
He said that "some of those (votes) did show up in election results," which had to be certified within 17 days of each election, but that the votes did not impact the outcomes of any elections. Asked for clarification about whether all the alleged double votes were counted, Walter Jones, a spokesperson for the secretary, said that the investigation is ongoing and will look into "whether two votes were counted for the same individual."
Raffensperger repeatedly asserted that these voters "knew what they were doing," and that this was not the result of a system failure, but he did not provide any evidence to back that claim. None of these cases have been fully investigated or tried.
"It's not the system. It was the county election officials, but also it was the voters knowing what they're doing, and then putting pressure on them and taking advantage of the system -- the protocols that the counties had in place," he said. "But it's really the voter that bears responsibility for that. They mailed back their ballot, they knew that they had a ballot that was back. They knew what they were doing."
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Jan. 20, 2020.
However, when pressed on how he could know these alleged double voters' motivation, Raffensperger said that was why investigations would be conducted, and cited one voter whom he said "was bragging about it down in Long County." No additional evidence of the alleged voter fraud was outlined during the press conference.
States have moved to make voting by mail more accessible as the coronavirus pandemic continues in the United States, and as that's played out, President Donald Trump has been claiming -- without evidence -- that mass mail-in voting will lead to widespread voter fraud. It's an accusation that election officials have repeatedly said is unfounded.
Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida whose expertise is in American elections, was skeptical of the secretary's claims of that many cases of double voting. McDonald is involved in litigation with Fair Fight Action against the secretary of state's office, but that litigation does not involve Tuesday's announcement.
"We've seen these allegations many times before, in different guises over the years where there are sensational allegations of vote fraud and then upon further investigation, the allegations unravel," McDonald told ABC News. "It may yet be that there are a few people who voted twice. ... But these sensationalistic numbers that you get at the initial stages of an allegation, like 1,000 people double voting -- they almost never hold up upon closer examination."
On Twitter, McDonald pointed to a report from ProPublica and the Atlanta Journal Constitution about how law enforcement records ultimately discredited allegations made by former Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is now the governor, just two days before the 2018 gubernatorial election, in which he was the Republican candidate. Kemp alleged that the state Democratic Party had been involved in an unsuccessful attempt to hack the state's voter registration files, which was untrue.
Scott Hogan, executive director for the Democratic Party of Georgia, accused Raffensperger of promoting "conspiracy theories and disinformation."
"Voter fraud continues to be extremely rare in Georgia, and any implication otherwise undermines our elections," Hogan said in a statement. "It is clear that rather than do his job of promoting the safety and security of our voting process, the Secretary of State is instead pushing the GOP’s voting conspiracy theories and disinformation, as he fights in court to make voting by mail less accessible to voters."
Raffensperger's announcementwas also slammedby Georgia’s Voter Empowerment Task Force, a group backed by several organizations, including Stacey Abrams' voting advocacy groupFair Fight Action, the Georgia NAACP and Black Voters Matter.
"Secretary Raffensperger’s grandiose press conference was a deliberate distraction from his failures to do his job. Under his so-called leadership and the ‘meltdown’ of an election over which he presided, Georgians faced barriers in casting their votes and having their votes counted," the group said in a statement. "Now, unsurprisingly, Georgia’s failed top elections official has decided to push a right-wing narrative spreading across the country rather than focusing on protecting the Constitutional rights of every Georgian."
At the news conference, Raffensperger was also pressed on how -- if the system was working -- someone could successfully cast an absentee ballot and vote in person.
"During Election Day, it gets to be very hectic, and as you're juggling the many balls of many voters, if you don't go back -- back to the system and check it off, then that's how that would actually get through, and so it wasn't recorded at the precinct level," Raffensperger said.
That is in line with what Amber McReynolds, an expert in election administration, told ABC News. She said that if these instances of alleged double voting pan out, it is likely due to aprocedural failure.
"My guess is it's a process problem because what should happen -- especially in the state where you have to request a ballot -- is that if you show up and they can't determine if you've returned that ballot, you vote a provisional (ballot). So if (poll workers) were letting them vote an in-person ballot without going through that process, then that is a process problem more than anything," said McReynolds, the CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, who served as the head of elections in Denver when Colorado transitioned to being a state that conducts all elections predominantly by mail.
She continued, "When you think about risks and elections, when you have all of this field process stuff happening at polling places, and different people in charge at each one of them, you run the risk of poll workers not following procedures. As best I can tell, that's what this is -- poll workers made mistakes."
Normally, only about 5% of Georgia voters cast absentee ballots, but there was a significant increase in voters casting ballots this way, especially for the primary, when the secretary's office proactivelymailed applicationsto all 6.9 million active voters to request an absentee ballot. McReynolds's organization had been advising Raffensperger's office about best practices for scaling up the absentee ballot system, she previously told ABC News.
For the general election, there could be nearly 50% of votes cast via absentee ballot, Raffensperger said in his press conference, adding that already, about 900,000 voters have requested one.
McDonald, the Florida professor, told ABC News Tuesday that he and fellow researchers had examined data from Georgia's June primary, and classified all the reasons that voters' ballots had been rejected or cancelled, and they found that there were nearly 70,000 voters who, according to their analysis, were issued an absentee ballot, but then voted in person. However, there was no uniformity in the how that data was entered, even within counties, he said, and there were over 1,000 unique reasons cited for this particular issue -- that they voted in person after requesting an absentee ballot.
People wait in line to vote in Georgia's primary election at Park Tavern on June 9, 2020, in Atlanta.
He said if a voter did go to vote in person after mailing back an absentee ballot, the systemic checks should prevent both ballots from being counted.
It's possible, he said, that voters who were concerned their absentee ballots wouldn't arrive in time to be counted could have shown up at the polls to vote in person, and could have even specifically said that to election officials on site -- but that situation could have gone unnoted in the system.
"You're really at the mercy of somebody who's just doing this data entry to make a notation correct, that would have described the voter's situation. If they fail to properly cancel the ballot -- they don't enter it into the system properly -- that could also lead to the appearance that the voter is ... intentionally trying to vote twice, when in fact, they're just concerned about their situation and are trying to make sure that their vote is actually, indeed counted. That's why whenever we have these allegations, law enforcement needs to follow up on them," McDonald said.
More than once last week, Trump seemed to encourage his supportersto try to vote twicein the November election.
"On Election Day or early voting, go to your polling place, even though you've mailed (your ballot) in. Go to your polling place to see whether or not your mail in vote has been tabulated or counted. If it has, you will not be able to vote because it's going to be counted. You'll not be able to vote and the mail in system worked properly as it should. But there's a big chance that it won't work properly," Trump said during a "tele-rally" for North Carolinians on Friday.
After he first made similar comments while in North Carolina on Wednesday, the executive director of North Carolina's State Board of Elections, issued a statement, telling voters not to do this.
"The State Board office strongly discourages people from showing up at the polls on Election Day to check whether their absentee ballot was counted. That is not necessary, and it would lead to longer lines and the possibility of spreading COVID-19," said Karen Brinson Bell.
In at least 40 states, voters have a way to track their mail ballots to ensure they are received by election officials.
