Georgia judge dismisses lawsuit alleging voter fraud in 2020 presidential election

By Felicia Sonmez and Amy B Wang,

A Georgia judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit against members of Fulton County’s election board, ruling that the plaintiffs, who alleged that there were fraudulent mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election, lacked standing to sue.

The decision by Superior Court Judge Brian Amero effectively blocks a small group’s efforts to inspect all 147,000 absentee ballots cast in the state’s largest county last November. It also comes one day after investigators testified that they were unable to find any evidence of fraudulent ballots.

News of the decision was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In his dismissal, Amero wrote 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.”

“They also allege that the issue will persist in future elections if not corrected,” he wrote. “However, regardless of the veracity of these allegations, the Court finds Petitioners have still failed to allege a particularized injury.”

The lead plaintiff, Garland Favorito of the group VoterGA, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision.

In July, Amero dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims against Fulton County, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections and the Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts on the basis of Georgia’s sovereign immunity laws. But he granted a request by the plaintiffs to add the county’s election board members — as individuals, not as a collective group — to the lawsuit as new respondents, which allowed the case to continue.

Fulton County election officials and local representatives have repeatedly asserted that there has been no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, a claim perpetuated by former president Donald Trump, who has continued to baselessly allege that the election was stolen from him. President Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes, the first time the state had gone for a Democrat since 1992.

Georgia officials conducted three audits of the 2020 election ballots, including a hand recount, which produced no evidence of widespread fraud.

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