Did fulton county admit it illegally certified 315000 ballots?

1. What Fulton County actually said at the December 9 hearing

At the Georgia State Election Board hearing, Ann Brumbaugh, attorney for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, stated she had “not seen the tapes” herself but that the county “does not dispute that the tapes were not signed,” a concession repeated in reporting on the meeting ^{[1] [3]}. That specific concession is the factual nucleus behind widespread headlines and is tied in reporting to the 315,000 figure derived from tabulator tape records covering advanced voting precincts ^{[1] [5]}.

2. What state investigators and auditors found

A Georgia Secretary of State investigation summarized in reporting “substantiated” that Fulton County “violated Official Election Record Document Processes” when 36 of 37 advanced voting precincts failed to sign tabulation tapes as required, and it similarly found failures to verify zero tapes at other sites — findings reporters cite when linking the county’s admission to the ~315,000 votes figure ^{[2] [6]}. Advocates who filed the challenge, notably David Cross of VoterGA, testified that the unsigned tabulator tapes correspond to roughly 315,000 early votes and argued the unsigned tapes remove the usual documentary certification of totals ^{[5] [7]}.

3. What “illegal certification” means in the reporting and in arguments by challengers

Challengers frame the unsigned tapes as a statutory violation that, in their view, rendered Fulton County without “lawful authority to certify” advanced voting totals to the secretary of state — an argument made at the hearing and repeated in multiple outlets ^{[5] [8]}. Reporters and commentators who report the phrase “illegally certified” generally rely on that legal interpretation rather than on a judicial ruling; the sources chiefly document the county’s acknowledgement of procedural noncompliance and the Secretary of State’s finding that recordkeeping rules were violated ^{[2] [4]}.

4. What the available reporting does not show

None of the supplied sources documents a final court decision, an official decertification of the 2020 results, or a formal admission phrased by Fulton County as “we illegally certified X ballots” in a legal-judgment sense; what is documented is an admission that required signatures on tabulation tapes were missing and the Secretary of State’s investigative summary that found violations of document procedures ^{[1] [2]}. The difference matters legally: acknowledging a procedural lapse is not the same as a judicial declaration that certification was unlawful and the results invalid ^[2].

5. How the story has been amplified and why labels vary

Conservative and partisan outlets have amplified the county attorney’s concession into headlines reading that Fulton “admitted” it “illegally certified” 315,000 ballots, a portrayal that depends on interpreting unsigned tapes as equivalent to illegal certification rather than on a legal adjudication ^{[5] [6]}. Neutral reporting (as cited) documents the unsigned tapes and the Secretary of State’s substantiation of the violation, while advocacy pieces use those facts to press a conclusion that a legal nullification should follow — an implicit agenda visible across the sources ^{[2] [9]}.

6. Bottom line

Fulton County officials acknowledged at a public hearing that they “do not dispute” tabulation tapes for advanced voting were not signed, and state investigators found the county violated record-keeping rules affecting roughly 315,000 early votes; these are documented facts in the cited reporting ^{[1] [2]}. Whether that acknowledgment equals a formal admission that the county “illegally certified” those ballots in the legal sense depends on definitions and on actions not shown in the provided sources — there is no cited record here of a court or election authority formally voiding or decertifying the ballots based solely on the unsigned tapes ^{[2] [4]}.