In 2022, a team of volunteers examined the chain-of-custody forms from the Drop Boxes used during the 2020 election. The results were not good.
In some Georgia counties, up to 25% of absentee ballots were returned using drop boxes. The ballots from these boxes were collected by teams sent out at various times during the day. State law required a chain-of-custody form for each pickup, documenting the ballots’ journey from pickup at the box to drop-off at the Elections Office. The examination team requested copies of all of these documents, from the Counties and from the Secretary of State, but what they received looks more like a collection of yard sale receipts than official election documents.
Many forms are missing, and the information (date, ballot count, location) is often difficult to read. Many entries were altered by overwriting the original, without explanation or justification. There were forms with collection times later than the drop-off times, forms with no indication of who received the ballots at the elections office, illegible forms, and recorded pick-up times that were physically impossible given the location of the boxes. The boxes were required to be visited every 24 hours, but frequently, days passed without a pickup. Fulton County alone missed 384 pickups. DeKalb missed 414. (“The board of registrars or absentee ballot clerk shall arrange for the collecting and return of ballots deposited at each drop box at the conclusion of each day where advance voting takes place.” – GA Code § 21-2-382)
Dates were sometimes changed on a pickup form. One pickup was even listed as having occurred on September 9, 2020, before the boxes were installed. Because they requested these forms from both the SOS and from each county, they usually had two copies of each form. Upon examination, they found that although the county copy of the form lacked the required transfer signatures, the state copy was correct, indicating that the signatures were added at a later date.
Ballots picked up from drop boxes were required to be returned ‘immediately’ to the county elections office, but the inspectors found ballots that were picked up on one day and delivered to the office one (or more) days later. Were those ballots just sitting in someone’s car over the weekend? (GA Code § 21-2-382 – “The collection team shall then immediately transfer the ballots to the board of registrars or absentee ballot clerk”)
The errors were too many to list in this article, so here is a quick summary, followed by some examples of actual transfer forms.
Drop Box Chain of Custody Overview
Here is a summary of the statewide findings from the analysis of drop box transfer forms.
What a Transfer Form Should Look Like
Below is an example of a properly filled-in transfer form. The blank forms were printed two to a page.
It simply is not that complicated. Or perhaps it was. Because the team found SO many mistakes. The following are just from Fulton County.
Pickup times after ballots were delivered to the elections office.
No indication of when the ballots were received at the County office or who received them. “The county registrar or a designee thereof shall sign the ballot transfer form upon receipt of the ballots from the collection team.” GA Code § 21-2-382
Number of ballots changed with no explanation
Many forms had the collection date changed. Again, no reason given.
“Collection of ballots from a drop box must be made by a team of at least two people.” GA Code § 21-2-382
“The collection team shall complete and sign a ballot transfer form upon removing the ballots from the drop box which shall include the date, time, location, number of ballots, confirmation that the drop box was locked after the removal of the ballots, and the identity of each person collecting the ballots.” GA Code § 21-2-382
Just so it is clear that the problems were statewide, here are some of the comments team members made when they sent in the results of their examinations:
- BARROW – None of these collections followed the rule. They just provided a sheet with initials.
- BARTOW – Some forms prefilled with collection name but no pickup done?
- BROOKS – Most weeks only did one pickup – on Friday. Also photocopied forms.
- BRYAN – For one box, most days only had one signature total (missing collector and Registrar)
- CHATHAM – We received almost twice as many transfer forms from the County directly than from the SOS
- CHATTAHOOCHEE – County/State Transfer Forms are different are different on 11/2 (one missing) and especially 11/3/20
- CLARKE – One of the worst, with multiple pickups on the same form. Also included someone’s patient ledger from an eye doctor mixed in with the transfer forms.
- CLAYTON – Many forms had no drop-box name on the scan we received – it looks like it was cut off by scanning somehow with the wrong paper orientation or something. Maybe go back later and record the ballot count but list them as “missing field”
- COBB – Nancy and Cornelius Keep Ballots OVERNIGHT every pickup. Sometimes surrendering them after 12pm the following day / some times the registrar fails to note the date but the receipts clearly show the pattern of holding ballots overnight, plus no pickup on ‘East’ on Nov 3?
- COLQUITT – Very neat forms! Beautiful neat handwriting.
- DEKALB – File from State Missing 535 Days (Only have transfer forms through October 5). Got rest from county MANY times ballots not turned in until the following morning
- DOUGHERTY – On 9/22 and 9/24 (pg 16) Registrar printed name and signature are different people. Also there are some unusual spikes on 9/24 and 10/19
- EARLY – Team received an email around Dec 2 saying they couldn’t produce the ballot transfer forms.
- EVANS – Forms only go through 10/13, then no more – not even Nov 3. But Evans also provided their own ballot totals which go though Nov 3, which has 158 more ballots.
- FAYETTE – Their transfer forms includes a count with a total for all four boxes of 5064, which is way different from what we got. Also there are several suspicious days where a large number of ballots were recovered.
- FRANKLIN – All forms were signed by Collectors and Registrars once and then photocopied – times, dates and counts were added later. Rule states ” The collection team shall complete and sign a ballot transfer form upon removing the ballots from the drop box” so all collections are invalid
- GWINNETT – Lots of forms were transferred at the same time. It is like collections were made during the day, and then a Registrar came in and signed them all at once. This made many of the times from collection to transfer greater than 4 hours. Also had library books picked up multiple times (see Collins Hill on 9/25/20)
- HALL – Unusual ballot counts around October 5th and 6th, with forms difficult to read and/or very high ballots/hour. Perhaps look at video tape?
- HANCOCK – County sent a second set of transfer forms which now show collector signatures on 8 of the forms that were missing a collector in our original version. The second version has been added to the other transfer pdf’s.
- HARALSON – Good example of how to fill out the forms!
- HARRIS – Really bad – most forms only had one collector and no Registrar, so just one person did the whole thing.
- JONES – Only provided printout of calendar pages with ballot counts (presumably) and two initials in each block when a pickup was done.. Followup should be done to see if they have more than they provided.
- LANIER – Did only one form correctly
- LOWNDES – No forms had Registrar (or Designee) name or signature
- LUMPKIN – Every Registrar signature just said “N/A”
- OCONEE – They said to go to SOS website to find absentee ballot totals. Oconee did not differentiate drop box ballots from any other absentee ballots.
- PEACH – Had a pickup recorded on 11/4 ????
- ROCKDALE – Had 60 ballots picked up on November 4 ???
- SUMPTER – One collector didn’t sign until December
- THOMAS – No Registrar signature on any forms
- TURNER – Had great very simple forms that were just a few lines but contained all the information that was required.
- WHITE – No form for an 11/3 collection
- WHITFIELD – Collector and/or Registrar would frequently just draw an arrow from an earlier signature or write’same’