Judge tosses out suit seeking to examine absentee ballots in Georgia

A Georgia judge dismissed an effort by supporters of former President Trump to inspect absentee ballots cast during the November 2020 presidential election. 

The decision by Fulton County Judge Brian Amero came one day after state investigators told the court that there was no evidence of counterfeit ballots, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

After reviewing evidence, Amero ruled that the case lacked standing. 

The judge said that the plaintiffs “allege their votes have been diluted due to the ‘substantial likelihood’ that fraudulent ballots were introduced during ballot processing for the General Election.” Amero added that “regardless of the veracity of these allegations, the Court finds Petitioners have still failed to allege a particularized injury.”

The ruling was the last major lawsuit surrounding the 2020 election in the state, according to the AJC. The state, which has been reliably red in past elections, turned blue in the 2020 contest. President Biden’s win marked the first time in over 20 years the Peach State was won by a Democrat. 

Following the election results, Trump and his team launched several challenges to election results in Georgia. However, they were largely unsuccessful. 

Georgia’s election officials said on Tuesday there was no indication of election fraud in the state that Biden won by 12,000 votes, according to the newspaper. 

“While no election is perfect, there was no widespread fraud or illegal voting large enough to overturn the election,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), said on Wednesday to the AJC. “The results were, as we reported, that President Trump came up short in the state of Georgia.”

The case’s dismissal comes shortly after two election workers in Fulton County were fired for allegedly destroying 300 municipal election-related applications in the past two weeks.