ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office says they are investigating claims from a Texas group that they have evidence of ballot harvesting in Georgia during the 2020 elections.
Raffensperger told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that the evidence appears to be credible, but Texas group “True the Vote” won’t reveal who their source of the information was.
“They said that they had some credible information, and we looked at it, and we said it was, and so then we asked, ‘Who are these people?’ and they said, ‘We know who they are. They talked to us, but we cant tell you who they are.,’” Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger says subpoenas that went out last week are meant to help find out how true those allegations really are.
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What exactly is ballot harvesting?
“The only person that can touch your absentee ballot is you, the voter, or a close family member of health caregiver. And anyone in-between would be ballot harvesting,” Raffensperger explained. “It’s illegal if anyone else that’s not a family member, yourself or a healthcare giver touches that absentee ballot.”
Winne obtained copies of four subpoenas. One was sent to Catherine Englebrecht, who says she is the founder of True the Vote, and another was sent to a man named Gregg Phillips.
The subpoenas call for Englebrecht and Phillips to sit for a deposition under oath regarding an ongoing state election board investigation.
The other two subpoenas are addressed to True the Vote and OPSEC Group, LLC, care of Phillips. Those each call for documents and records.
Those subpoenas call, in part, for “the identities of the ten hubs in Atlanta that you allege participated in a ballot harvesting scheme in Georgia” and “the identity and contact information for the bartender who came in from South Carolina to help with the alleged ballot harvesting scheme in Georgia.”
“If there were people who were paid, we need to know who they are, so we can have our investigators go ahead and interview them. We can get to the bottom of it. We will prosecute,” Raffensperger said.
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Winne also obtained a copy of a letter from GBI Director Vic Reynolds dated September 2021 in which he indicated that they had identified “279 cellphones which had made multiple trips to within 100 feet of a voter drop box. Other spreadsheets and documents provided tie these cell phones through geolocation to various organizations.”
The letter goes on to say that there is a “source” that can validate ballot harvesting. “Despite repeated requests that source has not been provided to either the GBI or to the FBI,” the letter continued.
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Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer says he received that letter from Reynolds, but said his main role was to make sure True the Vote’s information got to the right place. He also said that he reviewed it, believed it was important and helped facilitate a meeting.
Englebrecht said she does not anticipate revealing their source, but that everything the state needs is in data and video her group is prepared to provide.
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