How the campaign to undermine Georgia's election unfolded
Donald Trump and his supporters spent weeks trying to influence, and then overturn, the results of the November 2020 presidential election. They made allegations of voter fraud and sought to have state legislators - not voters - determine the winner, citing fraud allegations they said put the outcome of the election in doubt. To date, none of their allegations have been proved and investigators have found problems that might have affected only a handful of votes - not nearly enough to cast doubt on Joe Biden’s victory. What follows is a detailed timeline, compiled from interviews, government investigative documents, published news reports, books and memoirs that shows how this campaign played out in Georgia.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
- Biden is sworn in as president. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are sworn in, giving Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.
Jan 11, 2021
- Bobby Christine, newly appointed to replace Byung “BJay” Pak as the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, tells employees on a staff phone call that “there’s just nothing to” the various Trump voter fraud claims.
Jan 7, 2021
- After Congress completes its count of electoral votes, Vice President Mike Pence announces that Biden is the winner of the presidential election shortly after 3:40 a.m.
- Trump voluntarily dismisses four Georgia election lawsuits – one on the eve of a trial.
Jan 6, 2021
Credit: The Washington Post
Credit: The Washington Post
- Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sends a 10-page letter to Congress debunking various fraud allegations.
- State Sen. William Ligon waits by the phone in a Washington hotel, prepared to help members of Congress who were trying to justify invalidating Georgia’s electors. Trump’s team had asked him to be available to answer questions about fraud allegations in Georgia. Ligon would have told elected officials he doubted Georgia’s election results that showed Biden won by 12,000 votes. The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol derails Ligon’s plans.
- During the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, members of Congress flee the violence but later return to certify the election. Six of Georgia’s eight Republican House members – Rick Allen, Buddy Carter, Andrew Clyde, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jody Hice and Barry Loudermilk – vote to invalidate election results in other states, even after the violent assault. The move is rejected by a bipartisan group that includes Georgia Republican U.S. Reps. Drew Ferguson and Austin Scott. Four Republicans – Allen, Carter, Greene and Hice – support invalidating Georgia’s election results. The move goes nowhere after U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler – who had planned to vote to invalidate Georgia’s election results – changes her mind after the insurrection.
- Hice faces widespread criticism for posting on social media about the rally before the riot that “this is our 1776 moment.” He later tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he was not encouraging violence.
Jan 5, 2021
- Runoff election day for two U.S. Senate seats from Georgia. Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock defeat the Republican incumbents.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
- Vice President Mike Pence meets with Trump at the Oval Office, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book, “Peril.” Pence again says he does not have the authority to do anything other than count the electoral votes the next day. Meanwhile, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and others meet at the Willard Hotel in Washington, calling Republicans in Congress to persuade them to support the president the next day.
- Georgia state Sen. Burt Jones flies to Washington to have dinner with Pence. He planned to deliver the Jan. 2 letter from state legislators asking Pence to delay the Electoral College count. But Jones later says he didn’t deliver the letter.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Jan 4, 2021
- U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak resigns. “I deeply appreciate the opportunity to have served as United States Attorney,” Pak writes to Trump. “I wish you and your administration the best of luck and success.” Senate investigators later ask Pak whether – as of his Jan. 4 resignation – he was aware of credible allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia. “I was not aware of any evidence that indicated widespread fraud or anything that would affect the actual result of the election in Georgia,” Pak says.
- U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham receives memos from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani detailing allegations of voting fraud in Georgia, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book, “Peril.” The memo cites a discredited analysis of voting records that said dead people voted in November. Lee Holmes, chief counsel on Graham’s Senate Judiciary Committee, starts checking hundreds of names and finds no credible evidence of fraud. One example: Robert Drakeford, who was 88 years old, received a ballot on Sept. 18. The ballot was returned five days later. He died on Nov. 2, according to Giuliani’s memo. Holmes determined that some dead people in Georgia properly received and cast their ballots before they died. According to the Woodward-Costa book, he found the accusations of dead voters “laughable” and understood why courts had rejected them.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
- Vice President Mike Pence visits Georgia to campaign for U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue early in the day, then returns to Washington. According to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book, “Peril,” Trump summons Pence to the Oval Office, where he and attorney John Eastman try to convince the vice president that he could refrain from certifying the election. “I’ve been getting guidance that says I can’t,” Pence says. “Well, you can,” Eastman says.
- Trump later rallies in Georgia for U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. According to Axios, in return for Trump’s enthusiastic participation in the rally, Loeffler had agreed to vote against certifying the Electoral College results on Jan. 6 (Perdue was not eligible to vote on the certification because his term had ended). At the rally, Trump speaks about Pence’s role in the certification of the election on Jan. 6. “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us…. He’s a great guy,” the president says. “Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him quite as much.”
Credit: Curtis Compton / curtis.compton@ajc.com
Credit: Curtis Compton / curtis.compton@ajc.com
- Trump appoints Bobby Christine to be acting U.S. attorney in Atlanta, sidestepping the next in line of succession, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine.
Credit: ALYSSA POINTER
Credit: ALYSSA POINTER
Jan 3, 2021
- Trump attorney John Eastman expands his two-page memo on how Vice President Mike Pence can refuse to accept Electoral College votes from Georgia and other states. In the full six-page memo, obtained by CNN, Eastman cites specific ways that elections in Georgia and other states were allegedly conducted illegally. In Georgia, he cites legal arguments that judges had already dismissed in various lawsuits.
- U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak learns of Trump’s call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger through media accounts. He later tells senate investigators he was “upset” and “disappointed” by the call and considered resigning that day. He said it was clear the president was ignoring Justice Department reports that there was no significant election fraud, “and, if that’s the case, I didn’t want to be a part of potentially being a tool or a factor in whether or not people should believe in the department,” he told investigators. But Pak worried that his sudden resignation could affect Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff election two days later – that it could give credence to fraud allegations or be used as a “talking point.” So he decided to stick with his original plan – to give two weeks’ notice and leave office on Inauguration Day.
- At an Oval Office meeting with Trump, top Justice Department officials threaten to resign if the president names Jeffrey Clark acting attorney general. Trump eventually backs down. But he continues to fixate on Georgia fraud allegations. He complains about Pak, calling him a “Never Trumper” who failed to find evidence of fraud. Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Richard Donoghue tells Trump he will not fire Pak, but that Pak would submit his resignation the next day. Trump says he won’t fire Pak if Jan. 4 is his last day.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
- Later that night, Donoghue emails Pak to “call ASAP.” When Pak calls, Donoghue tells him Trump wanted to fire him. He says Trump agreed to accept his resignation rather than fire him, but Pak had to resign quickly. Donoghue offers to let Pak remain in another senior Justice Department role through the end of the administration, but Pak declines. “I told him, ‘Rich, thanks but no thanks,’ " Pak later told Senate investigators. " ‘I’m done.’ "
Jan 2, 2021
- Trump, attorney John Eastman and Trump administration officials participate in a telephone conference with nearly 300 state legislators. According to a press release, the purpose was to “review the extensive evidence of irregularities and lawlessness in the 2020 presidential election.” According to The Washington Examiner, Trump told the lawmakers they were the only path to stopping Biden’s election.
- It’s unclear whether any Georgia legislators participated in the Zoom call. But that same day 16 Georgia Republican legislators sign a letter to Vice President Mike Pence. Among them are state Sens. Brandon Beach, Matt Brass, Greg Dolezal, Burt Jones and William Ligon. The letter, which appeared on Ligon’s state Senate stationery, urges Pence to “delay the count of votes of the Electoral College for 12 days for further investigation of fraud, irregularities and misconduct in the November 2020 general election.” Legislators in four other states wrote similar letters to Pence.
- Trump phones Brad Raffensperger, pressuring the secretary of state to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia. “I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes, give me a break,” Trump says to Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel, Ryan Germany. “We have that in spades already. Or we can keep it going, but that’s not fair to the voters of Georgia because they’re going to see what happened.” Trump had called Raffensperger 18 times before the secretary agreed to take the call. Raffensperger says he resisted taking the president’s call because of the pending lawsuit Trump’s campaign and the Georgia GOP had filed against him.
- U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah receives a two-page memo from the White House written by Trump attorney John Eastman, according to The Washington Post. Eastman, also a law professor, had told Georgia lawmakers in December that they could send an alternative slate of electors to the Electoral College. Eastman’s memo argues that Vice President Mike Pence can refuse to certify the official electors in disputed states while presiding over the joint session of Congress at which electoral ballots are formally counted. Trump repeatedly urges Pence to toss out the election results.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
- At the U.S. Justice Department, acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Clark meets with acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Richard Donoghue, according to the Senate investigation. Clark continues to press debunked allegations of election fraud in Georgia, insisting that the Justice Department send his proposed letter, and the meeting becomes heated. Donoghue tells Clark the letter will never be sent as long as he and Rosen are in charge of the Justice Department. Then Clark tells Rosen the president has offered to make him acting U.S. attorney general. Clark indicates he might turn down the job if Rosen reconsiders his refusal to sign Clark’s letter. Rosen declines to reconsider.
- U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak speaks with state Sen. William Ligon about allegations that a truck full of ballots was being moved to a warehouse in Cobb County, where they allegedly were to be shredded to prevent an audit. Pak told Senate investigators the allegation came in two days before he resigned, so he doesn’t know what happened with the investigation. He refers it to the district election officer in his office. And when he learned that Bobby Christine would be his replacement, instead of his first assistant U.S. attorney, he arranged for Christine to receive a briefing about all pending election cases to aid the transition. The Cobb truck allegation was among the cases Christine is later briefed on.
Jan 1, 2021
- White House chief of staff Mark Meadows asks acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to have the U.S. Department of Justice look into “signature match anomalies” in Fulton County. It’s unclear what anomalies Meadows is referring to, but Rosen dismisses the request. According to a U.S. Senate investigation, that and other Meadows requests for investigations made that day violate long-standing restrictions on communication between the White House and Justice Department officials on specific law enforcement matters. “Can you believe this?” Rosen writes to acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Richard Donoghue, forwarding Meadows’ email. “I am not going to respond to message below.”
- Trump tweets: “January 6th. See you in D.C.”
Credit: Screenshot
Credit: Screenshot
Dec 31, 2020
- On the last day of 2020, Trump files a new lawsuit against Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. It asks the court to decertify the presidential election results, recycling discredited claims of fraud and misconduct from previous lawsuits. Five days later, U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen dismisses Trump’s request for emergency relief on numerous grounds. And he says overturning the election would “harm the public in countless ways.”
Dec 30, 2020
- On Dec. 30 or 31 – U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak couldn’t remember which – he gets a call from acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Richard Donoghue. Pak later tells Senate investigators that Donoghue “was very frustrated because the president was solely focused on Georgia with respect to any voter fraud allegations.” Donoghue says Trump “just would not believe that he lost Georgia.” Pak reminds Donoghue that his office had looked into “several allegations” and “concluded that there was nothing there.”
- Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani testifies before Georgia lawmakers for the third time in three weeks. At a hearing of state Sen. William Ligon’s special committee, Giuliani calls Georgia’s audit of signatures in Cobb County “a joke” and “an insult.” Gov. Brian Kemp bristles at that characterization. “”What do you say about the president’s attorney calling the work of the GBI a joke? Well, that’s a joke,” Kemp said, according to Channel 2 Action News. “He doesn’t know the work of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations very well.”
- White House chief of staff Mark Meadows forwards to acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen an email and attachments from attorney Cleta Mitchell. It is a copy of Trump’s Dec. 4 lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court, along with its exhibits – 1,800 pages in all. Meadows asks Rosen to look into the fraud allegations. The lawsuit contained claims that had already been widely discredited.
Dec 29, 2020
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
- An audit of absentee ballot signatures found no fraud among 15,000 Cobb County ballot envelopes examined by the GBI and state election investigators, according to a report released by the secretary of state’s office. Ten ballot envelopes had mismatched or missing signatures, but investigators contacted those voters and confirmed they had submitted the ballots.
- A White House official emails a draft lawsuit to top U.S. Justice Department officials, saying, “The president asked me to send the attached draft document for your review.” The lawsuit, included in a U.S. Senate investigation report, asks the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that Georgia and five other states administered the 2020 presidential election illegally, to declare the states’ Electoral College votes invalid and to authorize the states to conduct special elections to appoint new electors. Agency officials tell Trump that the Justice Department cannot file a lawsuit for the benefit of a political candidate or contest the outcome of an election.
Dec 28, 2020
- Jeffrey Clark, an acting assistant U.S. attorney general, circulates a draft letter to Georgia officials urging them to convene a special legislative session to consider appointing an alternative delegation of presidential electors. The letter says the U.S. Justice Department has “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the state of Georgia.” The claim is false, and emails obtained by a U.S. Senate committee show senior Justice Department officials rejected Clark’s letter, which apparently was not sent. “I have not seen evidence that would indicate that the election in any individual state was so defective as to render the results fundamentally unreliable,” acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Richard Donoghue wrote. “Given that, I cannot imagine a scenario in which the department would recommend that a state assemble its legislature to determine whether already-certified election results should somehow be overridden by legislative action.”
Dec 27, 2020
- Trump tells acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his top deputy, Richard Donoghue, to “just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” according to a U.S. Senate investigation report. In the meeting, Trump says the State Farm Arena video “shows fraud” by election workers. And he urges Donoghue to go to Fulton County to conduct a signature verification audit, which he says would find “tens of thousands of illegal votes.” Rosen and Donoghue tell Trump there is no merit to the State Farm Arena allegations.
Dec 23, 2020
- Trump calls Frances Watson, the chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state’s office. He tells Watson she would find “dishonesty” if she scrutinizes absentee ballots in Fulton County and that she has the “most important job in the country right now.” “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised,” Trump tells Watson in a conversation that won’t become public knowledge until Jan. 9. Channel 2 Action News obtains a recording of the conversation in March.
- Listen: Full audio of the call
- The secretary of state’s office rebuts various fraud claims at a hearing of the state House Government Affairs Committee.
Dec 21, 2020
- U.S. Attorney General William Barr reaffirms his Dec. 1 statement that there was no widespread election fraud. He says there is no basis for appointing special counsels to look into election fraud allegations.
Dec 19, 2020
- Trump tweets about protests planned for Jan. 6, when Congress will certify the election results, saying: “Big protests in D.C. on January 6. Be there. Will be wild!”
Dec 17, 2020
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
- State Sen. William Ligon releases a report based on testimony from the Dec. 3 hearing at which Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and others made unsubstantiated allegations. Ligon’s report restates the various fraud claims without rebuttal from election officials. It calls for a special legislative session and says the General Assembly should “determine the proper electors” if a majority of lawmakers concur with his findings.
Dec 15, 2020
- Trump summons senior U.S. Justice Department officials to the White House, according to a Senate investigation report. The president cites a series of election fraud claims, including the State Farm Arena video. Trump asks why the Justice Department isn’t “doing more to look at this.” The officials assure Trump the department is doing its job.
Dec 14, 2020
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@
- Georgia’s 16 presidential electors cast their votes for Biden in the Senate chambers at the Georgia Capitol. Meanwhile, in a conference room at the Capitol, Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer convenes a meeting of an alternative slate of electors who vote for Trump. Shafer says he was “asked by the president’s lawyers to hold this meeting to preserve his rights under the pending litigation.”
- Four Republicans took their names off the Trump electoral list. At least one other rejected an offer to join the group. John Isakson, the son of the late U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, initially agreed to serve as a Trump elector if the former president won reelection but refused to be included on the new slate. Isakson said he didn’t want to participate in a process that seemed like “political gamesmanship.”
- Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announce the GBI will audit a sample of absentee ballot signatures in Cobb County in response to a specific complaint. The move does not satisfy critics – U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s office calls for an audit in all 159 counties.
- U.S. Attorney General William Barr offers his resignation to Trump, effective Dec. 23, noting that they are butting heads. Trump accepts his resignation, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book, “Peril.”
Dec 12, 2020
- The Georgia Supreme Court rejects Trump’s Fulton County lawsuit appeal. With time running out to overturn the election in the courts, Trump had asked the court to intervene and rule on his lawsuit. The court says “petitioners have not shown that this is one of those extremely rare cases that would invoke our original jurisdiction.”
Dec 10, 2020
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
- Matt Braynard, whose voting fraud analysis was cited in Trump’s Fulton County election lawsuit, testifies at a Georgia House committee hearing. Braynard had analyzed state voting records and other information, claiming that thousands of out-of-state residents may have voted in Georgia. State Rep. Bee Nguyen, D-Atlanta, challenges Braynard’s analysis. She says she checked property tax records and visited constituents to confirm they weren’t out-of-state voters. Braynard says he hasn’t accused anyone of voting illegally and acknowledges that only state officials can determine whether the voters are legitimate.
Dec 8, 2020
- Texas asks the U.S. Supreme Court to delay Electoral College votes or invalidate election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, saying they violated federal and state election laws. The Texas suit prompts disbelief and derision from legal experts. But seven Georgia Republican members of Congress side with Texas in a legal brief, as did 15 Georgia state senators, 12 state representatives and a state senator-elect. Georgia’s two Republican U.S. senators also announce their full support for the lawsuit. The U.S. Supreme Court dismisses the lawsuit three days later.
- Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office calls the Texas lawsuit “constitutionally, legally and factually wrong.” In a phone call, Trump warns Carr not to rally other Republicans against the Texas lawsuit.
Dec 7, 2020
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
- Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certifies Georgia’s presidential election results after a third tally of votes confirmed Biden’s victory in the state over Trump. The final tally shows Biden won by 11,779 votes out of some 5 million ballots cast in Georgia.
Dec 6, 2020
- U.S. Attorney General William Barr directs the FBI to interview witnesses about allegations of fraud at State Farm Arena. According to emails obtained during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee investigation, Barr didn’t want to rely entirely on the assessment of state authorities, who had already investigated the video and found no wrongdoing. The FBI later interviews election workers featured in the video and concludes nothing improper happened.
- Gov. Brian Kemp tells state lawmakers that any attempt to award Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to Trump after he lost the November election would be unconstitutional. Kemp also shoots down calls for a special legislative session to pick GOP presidential electors.
- State lawmakers gather in Athens for a planning meeting. Trump calls individual legislators there “to find elected Georgians willing to step across a constitutional line on his behalf,” Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan wrote in his recent book, “GOP 2.0.” Duncan is one of several top Georgia Republicans who resisted Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s election results.
- Four Republican state senators – Brandon Beach, Greg Dolezal, Burt Jones and William Ligon – circulate a petition seeking an emergency special session to appoint an alternative slate of presidential electors. The petition cites a litany of dubious fraud claims – none of which would ultimately hold up under scrutiny. It also cites the widely disputed legal argument that legislators can decide the election after the fact. The petition fails to get enough lawmakers’ signatures to call a special session.
Dec 5, 2020
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
- Trump calls Gov. Brian Kemp, urging him to convene a special session of the General Assembly to overturn the election results. Kemp tells the president his opposition to a special session has not changed, and he is following state law by certifying the results. At a Valdosta rally that evening, Trump says he is “ashamed” of the Republican he endorsed in the 2018 governor’s race and urges U.S. Rep. Doug Collins to challenge Kemp in a 2022 primary.
Dec 4, 2020
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
- U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak speaks with U.S. Attorney General William Barr about the State Farm Arena video. Barr tells Pak to make it a “top priority” to find out more about Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s fraud allegations. A few days later, Pak reviews the video, as well as audio of interviews with witnesses conducted by the secretary of state’s office. Pak concludes nothing improper happened. But the FBI begins to investigate.
- Dozens of people attend a “Stop the Steal” rally outside the Governor’s Mansion in Buckhead. The rally was organized by the group Women for America First, a chief sponsor of the Jan. 6 protest in Washington that devolved into an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
- An investigator with the secretary of state’s office tells Channel 2 Action News that the State Farm Arena video shows nothing improper.
- Trump and Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer file a lawsuit against state election officials and the election directors of 15 Georgia counties. It says tens of thousands of ineligible people voted in the November election and asks the court to order a new presidential election. Election experts later say the claims are riddled with errors.
Dec 3, 2020
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
State Sen. William Ligon holds a televised hearing at the Georgia Capitol. Ligon turns his committee over to Trump’s attorneys, who make hours of unchallenged fraud allegations. Among other things, the lawyers unveil election night video from State Farm Arena, which they say shows Fulton County election workers counting illegal ballots in secret - a claim later shown to be false. Rudy Giuliani tells Georgia lawmakers the video is a “powerful smoking gun.”
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Dec 1, 2020
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
- Gabriel Sterling of the Georgia secretary of state’s office holds a press conference to decry threats of violence against election workers. He says Trump and U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are complicit, and he urges them to speak out against the behavior of some of the president’s supporters. “Someone’s going to get hurt, he says. “Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed.”
- U.S. Attorney General William Barr tells The Associated Press that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been investigating complaints of election fraud. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” he said.
- Later that day, Barr tells Trump his attorneys are a “bunch of clowns” whose theory of voting machine fraud is “demonstrably crazy,” according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book, “Peril.” Trump objects, citing allegations of wrongdoing in Fulton County. “We’re looking into that,” Barr says. “But so far, the word is, you know, that those were legitimate ballots. Mr. President, we’re looking into this stuff, but these things aren’t panning out.”
Nov 25, 2020
- Attorney Sidney Powell files a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta seeking to decertify the presidential election results in Georgia and declaring Trump the winner. It cites tens of thousands of illegal votes and says Georgia’s voting software and equipment were used to swing the election to Biden. Twelve days later, U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten Sr. dismisses the lawsuit, saying federal courts have no jurisdiction in what is essentially a state election challenge. He says Powell should have challenged the use of the voting system months before the election, not three weeks after it. And he says there is no legal mechanism to decertify the election. “Finally, in their complaint, the plaintiffs essentially ask the court for perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election,” Batten says at the Dec. 7 hearing. “They want this court to substitute its judgment for that of 2 ½ million Georgia voters who voted for Joe Biden, and this I am unwilling to do.”
Nov 24, 2020
- State Sens. Brandon Beach, Greg Dolezal, Burt Jones and William Ligon call for a special session of the General Assembly. The Republicans want the session to address “structural issues with our voting system before the January runoff,” as well as “any evidence of voter fraud.”
Nov 21, 2020
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
- Trump’s supporters hold “Stop the Steal” rallies at the Georgia Capitol and the Governor’s Mansion in Buckhead.
Nov 20, 2020
- Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office certifies Biden as the winner of the presidential election in Georgia after a hand recount. The recount found thousands of ballots that initially were not counted because they were overlooked. Biden’s margin of victory falls to 12,670 votes.
Nov 19, 2020
- State Sen. Jesse Stone, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, authorizes state Sen. William Ligon to chair an election law study subcommittee. The goal is to “examine the recent election cycle, recount, audit, investigations and litigation as well as the upcoming runoffs,” Stone wrote.
- Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell hold a news conference in Washington to lay out election fraud claims. Giuliani cites eyewitness accounts of suspicious activity in Georgia and other states. Powell says Dominion Voting Systems voting machines - used in Georgia and other states - were designed to flip votes.
Nov 18, 2020
- Talk radio host Alex Jones leads a “Stop the Steal” rally at the Georgia Capitol, 11 Alive reported.
Nov 17, 2020
- Eight Georgia Republican senators hold a press conference at the state Capitol, calling for an audit of signatures on absentee ballots. They also call for the Senate Government Oversight Committee to convene a hearing, CBS 46 reports.
Nov 16, 2020
Credit: John Amis
Credit: John Amis
- Fifty-nine top computer scientists and election security experts rebuke Trump’s claims of voter fraud and hacking, saying such assertions are “unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.” The scientists say “no credible evidence has been put forth that supports a conclusion that the 2020 election outcome in any state has been altered through technical compromise.”
- As Georgia’s hand recount continues, Floyd County finds more than 2,600 ballots it did not originally tally. The problem occurred because county election officials didn’t upload votes from a memory card in a ballot-scanning machine. Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting system manager, calls it “an amazing blunder.”
Nov 14, 2020
- A Nov. 14 internal Trump campaign memo debunks conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Georgia and other states. Among other things, Trump’s campaign staff concludes that Dominion and its leadership have no direct ties to Venezuela, to billionaire George Soros or to left-wing “antifa” activists, according to The New York Times.
Credit: Bob Andres / Bob.Andres@ajc.com
Credit: Bob Andres / Bob.Andres@ajc.com
Nov 13, 2020
- CNN projects Biden as the winner in Georgia. It’s the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has won Georgia since 1992.
- The conservative Council for National Policy unveils a plan to contact state lawmakers in Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania to “urge their support of litigation calling for an open, fair and transparent accounting of the 2020 presidential voter ballots.”
- Attorney L. Lin Wood files a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent the certification of the presidential election in Georgia. Wood says new procedures for checking signatures on absentee ballots are unconstitutional. A week later, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg rejects Wood’s argument, saying the rules are not illegal, and Wood waited too long to challenge them anyway. And he finds the extraordinary remedy Wood sought - to prevent the certification of the election - could cause great damage. “To interfere with the result of an election that has already concluded would be unprecedented and harm the public in countless ways,” the judge writes.
- U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham asks Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger whether he has the power to reject more absentee ballots in the presidential race. Raffensperger later says Graham appeared to suggest that he find ways to reject legal ballots to help Trump’s reelection chances. Graham denies it.
Nov 12, 2020
- Election security groups, including the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, release a statement calling the Nov. 3 election “the most secure in American history.” In bold type, it said, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised.” Five days later, Trump fires the head of the agency.
- Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani presses the president to file a lawsuit in Georgia and shares a conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems machines had flipped thousands of Trump votes to Biden, according to The New York Times. Deputy Campaign Manager Justin Clark warned the suit would be dismissed on procedural grounds. Giuliani calls Clark a liar. “And with that, the election-law experts were sidelined in favor of the former New York city mayor, the man who once again was telling the president what he wanted to hear,” the newspaper reports.
Nov 11, 2020
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
- Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger orders an extraordinary hand recount of all 5 million ballots cast in the presidential election. The initial count shows Biden defeated Trump by about 14,000 votes. The recount decision follows an immense effort by Trump and his supporters to cast doubt on Georgia’s election results.The recount later confirms Biden’s victory.
Nov 10, 2020
- Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and state House Speaker David Ralston issue a joint statement rejecting a special legislative session to change voter residency requirements ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff for the U.S. Senate. They say changing the rules so close to the election would mean endless litigation.
- In a letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump’s campaign and the Georgia Republican Party demand a quick recount in the presidential election. The letter says ballots were cast by dead people, out-of-state residents and others ineligible to vote, but it offers no evidence. In a separate letter, eight congressional Republicans from Georgia ask Raffensperger to investigate Trump’s claims.
Nov 9, 2020
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
- In a joint statement, U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue call on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top elections official and a fellow Republican, to resign. They cite unspecified election “failures” but provide no evidence. Raffensperger says he will not step down.
- U.S. Attorney General William Barr authorizes federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voting fraud that “could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual state.” According to a U.S. Senate report, the FBI later investigated claims that workers at State Farm Arena secretly counted suitcases full of fake ballots on election night, and the bureau found the claims to be false.
Nov 6, 2020
- Just before 4:30 a.m., Democrat Joe Biden overtakes President Donald Trump and takes the lead in Georgia for the first time as the count of absentee ballots continues.
- Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani meets with the president’s campaign staff and then with Trump to make the case that fraud cost him the election, according to the book “Peril,” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. Among other things, Giuliani cites the late swing of votes to Biden as evidence of fraud.
He tells the president he could fix the problem “if you just put me in charge.”
Nov 5, 2020
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
- About 100 of Trump’s supporters protest outside State Farm Arena, where election workers tally ballots. Among the organizers is Amy Kremer, chair of Women for America First, the group that would later sponsor the Jan. 6 protest that devolved into an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
- With Biden pulling ahead in swing states, Trump cries “fraud” at a White House press conference, blaming “illegal votes” that came in late.
- After Trump’s press conference, the Georgia GOP quickly organizes a Buckhead rally, where party officials embrace the president’s fraud allegations. Among those who attend are U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville; state Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta; state Rep. Vernon Jones, D-Lithonia; and state GOP Chairman David Shafer.
Nov 4, 2020
- Trump’s campaign and the Georgia Republican Party file the first of dozens of election-related lawsuits in Chatham County. The lawsuit claims 53 late ballots may have been improperly counted. A judge dismisses the petition the next day, saying there is no evidence of illegal voting.
A judge in Chatham County delivers a decision on the Trump Campaign's lawsuit over ballot counting.
Nov 3, 2020
Credit: Special
Credit: Special
- Republican President Donald Trump holds early leads in key swing states including Georgia, but his lead evaporates in the hours and days to come. Political observers expected the late surge of votes for Democrat Joe Biden because polls had shown his supporters were more likely to rely on absentee ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic and because the party’s strength is in metro areas where counts often take longer. But former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a former Georgia Republican, tells Fox News that Democrats were stealing the election in cities such as Atlanta.
- In his election night speech, Biden says he is “feeling good” about the results. “We’re going to have to be patient, until the hard work of tallying votes is finished,” he says. “And it ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.”
- At about 2:30 a.m., Trump declares victory but claims Democrats are trying to steal the election. The claim was months in the making. By one count, Trump expressed concern about voting fraud and absentee ballots more than 150 times between April and Election Day 2020.