Georgia Election Officials Quash Claims Poll Worker Threw Away Ballot in Viral Video

Election officials in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 6 quashed claims that a poll worker threw out a ballot after a viral video claimed to show the worker crumpling up an absentee ballot.

Fulton County election director Richard Barron told reporters at a press conference on Friday that the worker at State Farm Arena was not removing a ballot, but a list of instructions inside an envelope containing the ballot.

The paper the worker is seen discarding in the video is too small to be a ballot, according to the statement read out by Barron. Barron said the worker was at a station using a machine to open the “outer envelope”. The extraction of the ballot occurred at the next stage of the process.

“Its been questioned whether the poll worker featured in the video was discarding one of those ballots. The answer is no. Undeniably no. At no time was the poll worker able to extract the ballot,” Barron said.

The poll worker was in hiding and had shut down their social media accounts after their personal details were released online, according to Barron. Credit: FultonGovernmentTV via Storyful