Https://thefederalist.com/2025/12/17/fulton-county-we-dont-dispute-315000-votes-lacking-poll-workers-signatures-were-counted-in-2020/ Can you fact check this story?
Executive summary
The Federalist headline — that “Fulton County: ‘We Don’t Dispute’ 315,000 Votes Lacking Poll Workers’ Signatures Were Counted In 2020” — conflates a state finding about missing tabulation-tape signatures with an assertion that hundreds of thousands of ballots were “illegally certified” or proof of fraud; Georgia oversight reviews documented procedural lapses in advanced‑voting paperwork but multiple official reviews and reporting show the absent signatures on some tabulator tapes do not by themselves prove votes didn’t exist or that the certified outcome was wrong [1] [2] [3].
1. What the record actually shows: procedural violations, not proven lost votes
State investigators found that many advanced voting tabulation tapes lacked the required poll-worker signatures, and a summary by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office said 36 of 37 advanced‑voting precincts in Fulton failed to sign tabulation tapes as required, a procedural violation noted in agency materials [1]. The State Election Board later referred absentee‑handling problems in Fulton to the Georgia attorney general, citing multiple violations related to processing and mailing absentee ballots [4]. Those findings support the narrower point that statutory recordkeeping steps were sometimes not followed, but they do not, on their own, prove that the ballots counted were counterfeit or that the certified totals were fabricated [1] [4] [2].
2. Why the headline’s leap — from missing signatures to ‘illegally certified’ votes — is misleading
The Federalist’s framing implies that any missing signatures on tabulation tapes automatically invalidate the ballots counted; election experts and prior fact‑checks caution this is not how the paper trail works. Poll tapes are one part of the record; memory cards, official county statements, ballot envelopes and multiple counts are additional documentation used to reconstruct and verify totals, and absence of a tape does not equal absence of votes [2]. Independent reviews and recounts of Georgia’s 2020 results produced consistent outcomes, and the Georgia oversight panel found mistakes and mismanagement but no evidence that those errors altered the election result [3] [5].
3. Competing testimony and claims about signature verification
Some former Fulton election officials, notably Mark Wingate, testified that no signature verification was performed on absentee ballots in 2020, testimony that has been cited by outlets amplifying claims of systemic verification failures [6] [7]. At the same time, county election officials have described processes — including scanning to “credit” absentee ballots and later verification steps — that complicate any blanket claim that no verification occurred at all [8]. That split between whistleblower testimony and official explanations is why multiple oversight bodies have pursued further review rather than accepting a single narrative [6] [8] [4].
4. What multiple official reviews concluded: problems, but not proven fraud
State and independent reports documented managerial shortcomings, missing or mishandled paperwork, and specific rule violations, and those findings prompted admonishments, monitoring and referrals for further investigation — not a decertification of the 2020 result [3] [4]. The State Election Board also closed at least one high‑profile “ballot suitcase” investigation with a finding of no evidence of fraud and noted that numerous sensational allegations were unsubstantiated [9]. Fact‑checks and local reporting reiterate that while Fulton’s administration had significant problems, the available evidence did not support claims the outcome was fraudulent [5] [2].
5. The current legal and political context that fuels the claim
The Justice Department has sued Fulton County seeking 2020 election records, and that litigation, plus ongoing partisan pressure and selective retellings of administrative findings, has amplified narrow procedural findings into broader conspiracy narratives [10] [11]. Outlets and commentators with different agendas have unevenly emphasized parts of official reports — some highlighting the tabulation‑tape failures as proof of illegal certification, others stressing that multiple audits and recounts produced consistent totals — which explains the polarized coverage [1] [3] [5].
Conclusion: The Federalist story rests on an accurate kernel — state reviewers flagged missing signatures on tabulation tapes in many Fulton advanced‑voting precincts — but its leap to the claim that 315,000 votes were therefore “illegally certified” or “counted” as invalid votes is not supported by the chain of evidence in official reports and fact checks; missing poll‑tapes are a serious procedural problem that warranted review, but they do not, without more corroborating proof, demonstrate widespread ballot forgery or a flipped result [1] [2] [3] [9].