In Glynn County, Georgia, it was 'voter fraud' when poll workers found no record of a person who already voted.
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A woman holds up her sticker that signifies that she has officially voted in the state of Georgia, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP)
No, Glynn County, Georgia, incident isn’t evidence of ‘voter fraud’
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A system lag in Glynn County, Georgia, meant that a person who had already cast a ballot at a different early voting site hadn’t been marked off yet, an election official told PolitiFact. The voter had not tried to vote more than once, but was at a voting site to assist a disabled person who was voting.
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If the person had voted twice, the system would have detected it once the system update was complete.
Early voting figures in the battleground state of Georgia have broken records, with nearly half of all registered voters having already cast ballots. But misinformation about early voting is also flourishing.
"Just wanted to let people know that I already witnessed voter fraud," said an Oct. 26 Facebook post in a public group for Glynn County residents. "I went to vote at Ballard on Wednesday. In front of me was two people, the woman handed them her ID and said: ‘I already voted, I’m just here to assist him.’ They asked when did she vote and she answered: ‘This morning.’ They had no record of her voting."
The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)
This was not a case of voter fraud, county election officials told PolitiFact. The incident happened at the Ballard Community Building early voting site in Brunswick, where a woman who had voted that day at a different early voting site arrived with a disabled voter to assist him. She presented her identification, which a poll worker mistakenly scanned, Christopher Channell, Glynn County elections director, said.
An ID is not required to help someone vote, Channell said.
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An electronic system alerts all polling places of people who have already voted. The system had not yet updated between the time the woman cast her ballot and the time she came to a different polling place with another voter.
The woman did not intend nor try to vote a second time, Channell said.
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Channell said the system is typically updated across all polling places within minutes of a person voting but on that day, it experienced a lag. However, that doesn’t mean a person voting more than once would not be detected.
"If a person would try to exploit that delayed system and vote a second time, eventually, once the system did sync, it would show that the person voted a second time," Channell said. "That person would be turned over to the state for having voted multiple times and would be facing state charges." The syncing delay has been resolved, he said.
We rate the claim that it was "voter fraud" in Glynn County, Georgia, when poll workers found no record of a person who already voted False.
Our Sources
Facebook post (archived link), Oct. 26, 2024
Phone interview with Christopher Channell, Director of Elections, Oct. 30, 2024
WAGA-TV, Election 2024: Nearly 50% of Georgia voters have cast ballots, Oct. 31, 2024
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No, Glynn County, Georgia, incident isn’t evidence of ‘voter fraud’
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