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“Our group paid Fulton County $15,800 in an open records request where the county turned over 77 megabytes of records, every tabulator tape representing 315,000 votes,” Cross told the board.
He then delivered the central finding that stunned observers.
“Fulton County produced zero signed tabulator tapes in early voting,” Cross said, adding that the signed tapes are “the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic.”
Georgia election law requires poll workers to sign tabulation tapes at the start and end of each voting day. These documents serve as the official verification that voting machines began at zero and that final vote totals were properly recorded.
Without signed tapes, there is no documented proof that machines were properly cleared or that vote totals were accurately certified.
Fulton County Attorney Confirms Rule Violation
Rather than disputing the findings, Fulton County’s attorney openly acknowledged the violation.
Board of Registration and Elections attorney Ann Brumbaugh admitted during the hearing, “We do not dispute that the tapes were not signed. It was a violation of the rule.”
Brumbaugh attempted to frame the issue as a procedural failure that has since been corrected under new leadership.
WATCH:
“I’ve not seen the tapes myself, but I— we do not dispute that the tapes were not signed. It was a violation of the rule. Since 2020, again, we have new leadership and a new building and a new board and new standard operating procedures, and since then, the training has been enhanced,” she said.
She continued, explaining that Fulton County now requires poll workers to sign tapes at the beginning and end of each voting day and claims that investigations are launched if signatures are missing.
“But we don’t have a— we don’t dispute the allegation,” Brumbaugh added.
State Investigation Confirms Widespread Violations
A 2024 investigation summary from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office further confirmed the scale of the problem.
According to the report, officials “substantiated” findings that Fulton County “violated Official Election Record Document Processes when it was discovered that thirty-six (36) out of thirty-seven (37) Advanced Voting Precincts in Fulton County, Georgia failed to sign the Tabulation Tapes as required [by statute].”
The investigation also found that officials at 32 polling locations failed to properly verify zero tapes, which are required to show machines start each day with zero votes recorded.
Election law experts note that without signed zero tapes, there is no way to confirm that ballots from prior elections or test runs were not left on voting machines. Similar failures in other states have previously resulted in inflated vote totals due to leftover data.
DOJ Investigation and Rising Tensions
The revelations come as the Department of Justice is actively seeking access to Fulton County’s 2020 election records. Earlier this month, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Fulton County Clerk of the Courts Che Alexander to enforce a subpoena demanding “all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County.”
Tensions over ballot custody have already boiled over at county meetings. Last month, Republican board member Julie Adams asked whether the 2020 ballots were still in county custody. Chairwoman Sherri Allen abruptly shut down the question, demanding another board member not respond, triggering a heated exchange.
With Fulton County now admitting that hundreds of thousands of ballots were certified without legally required documentation, scrutiny is only intensifying.
“These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic,” Cross reminded the board.
As investigations continue and federal officials demand access to records, Fulton County’s 2020 election practices remain under a growing cloud of doubt that shows no sign of lifting.
If this is proven to be true, someone needs to go to jail!