The following composites and details should help explain the context of the CCTV footage from the November 3rd ballot count in Fulton County, Georgia.
The video shows a four-camera FOV of suite 604, the ballot processing room at the State Farm Arena. At 10:58:05 p.m., as the crew was finishing the clean-up at the end of the day, Ralph Jones, the floor supervisor (the bald man in a red shirt), received several calls on his cell phone. Shortly after his second call, he and another woman with black hair and blond braids (Shaye Moss) began removing four rolling transport ballot boxes from under a black cloth-covered table at the center of the room. At 11:02:52 p.m., they distribute the ballot trays from the boxes between four workstations. The ‘special’ count task force consists of five individuals and feeds the ballots to four scanners. The ballot counting continued for nearly two hours (112 minutes) and ended at about 12:58 a.m.
Running various video analytics, such as motion pattern analysis, on the footage yielded multiple pieces of evidence that the ‘special’ midnight count was pre-planned and carefully timed. The 116-minute segment also clearly shows that the team sprinted through the ballot scanning process to reach some kind of goal or deadline.
Image 1: A composite of 4 CCTV field of views of the ballot counting room in suite 604. The location of the table under which the four ballot storage boxes were kept and several key events that took place before the ‘special’ ballot count
People, Activity, and Props
At 11:02 p.m., four ballot storage boxes were removed, with seven individuals present in the room. Observations indicate that only four of the 24 tables were in use, and no visible ballot processing or counting activity occurred outside of the four designated tables located in the top right corner of Image 1. At 11:04 p.m., two additional individuals (POI-6 and POI-7) departed for the night. During the midnight session, the only ballot scanning activity involved ballots retrieved from under the table in the middle of the room. A fifth ballot storage box, also located under the table, was removed and opened but was not processed. Notably, the ballots retrieved from under the table had already been pre-processed and were neatly arranged flat in trays, ready for scanning.
The ballot boxes taken from under the table were locked and required keys to open. It may be relevant that not all ballot boxes in the room were kept locked.
Image 2: Fulton County ballots in boxes and the USPS trays used to hold them. Each of the four rolling transport ballot boxes under the table contained about 6000 ballots (each tray with 500-2000 ballots)
Image 3: The A-Team: Ruby Freeman, her daughter Shaye Moss, and the floor supervisor Ralph Jones Sr. (the Registration Chief at Fulton County Government). Freeman, violating Fulton County’s roles, is seen advertising her business “LaRuby’s Unique Treasures.” Jones has a long history of ‘mismanagement’ and poor judgment.
Water Leaks and the Official Stop Time of 10:30-11:00 p.m.
Concerning the events on Nov 3rd, the termination of the counting activity in the room and the presence of the skeleton staff didn’t correlate to the alleged leaking water pipe narrative. Robb Pitts and Ralph Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the pipe burst at 6:07 a.m. and was repaired within two hours around 8 a.m. The burst water pipe media coverage is interesting because it illustrates a typical disinformation campaign. In less than 12 hours, the non-existent burst pipe morphed several times into a water main break, an overflowing urinal, and a leaky toilet. At 11:02 p.m., four ballot storage boxes were removed, with seven individuals present in the room. The state of the tables indicated that only four of the 24 tables were in use, and no ballot processing or counting activity was observed beyond the four designated tables clustered in the top right corner of Image 1. At 11:04 p.m., two additional individuals (POI-6 and POI-7) left for the night. During the midnight session, the only ballot scanning activity involved ballots retrieved from under the table in the middle of the room. A fifth ballot storage box, also located under the table, was removed and opened but was not processed. Notably, the ballots retrieved from under the table had already been pre-processed and were placed flat in trays, ready for scanning.
There is some confusion about the official statements of the intent to stop the ballot count at 10:00-11:00 p.m. There are at least two confirmed statements about this plan, and both came from Ralph Jones, the floor supervisor. The first was made on the morning of Nov 3rd by Jones to the AJC, stating that 10:30 p.m. would be EOD. Jones made the second at about 6:35 p.m. during an emergency call with the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections (see Audio 1 at 01:45:00). It is noteworthy that during the emergency evening call with the Fulton County Board, none of the six officials on the call challenged Jones about his plan to shut down the count at 10-11 p.m. and accepted it as fact.
Image 4: The leadership team of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections present on the call with Ralph Jones
The footage confirms the shutdown plans and shows that, as Jones advertised throughout the day, the room was cleared at about 10:48 p.m. It is also clear that five members of the midnight count team (that included Jones, Freeman, and Moss) had no intention of leaving as they continued to loiter in the room waiting for the Republican observers to leave. Moss, for example, was keeping busy dusting/wiping off the tables and walking around with little apparent purpose.
Estimate of the Number of Processed Ballots During the Midnight Count
It’s hard to calculate the exact number of ballots from the rolling boxes. Still, a rough estimate based on four boxes (~500-2K ballots per box), the scanner speed/throughput (3K per hour), and the user motion associated with feeding the scanner yields a range of 6K-24K ballots. Obviously, without the proper controls (like duplicate ID detection) and supervision, these ballots could have also been scanned multiple times (some of which were).
Image 5: The identity and relationship confirmation for two persons seen in the CCTV footage in suite 604. Two of the individuals took part in the removal of the four rolling transport ballot boxes and the resumption of the ballot count. The two are Ruby Freeman, an election worker and a democratic activist, and her daughter, Shaye Moss, a team election supervisor.
Image 6: Ruby Freeman promoting Ralph Jones’ boss. Robb Pitts, one of the sources of the leaking pipe story
Pesky Questions
Over the past few days, I’ve heard a lot of interesting and false theories, like Ben Handrick’s disinformation movies about the GA ballots (1, 2, 3, 4). But, what is ostensibly missing are the fundamental answers from the Clouseau investigators who were combing the ground for clues of election fraud are simple questions like:
- Why did Rick Barron suddenly change his mind about the EOD count and instruct Ralph Jones to resume the count at 11:00 p.m. after almost everyone left for the day?
- Why did the daily count have to stop at 10:30 p.m. in the first place?
- What was the net gain/loss for each candidate from this midnight count?
- Why were the four ballot boxes stored under the table and not with the rest of the ballot storage boxes next to the walls and processing tables?
- Why were the boxes locked while other non-processed ballot boxes were kept open?
Final thoughts
My problem with the ‘special’ late night ballot count is not that it took place late at night (the count should have been uninterrupted until completion), but, that it was riddled with anomalies. Here are a few examples:
- Sitting and waiting – the four ballot transport boxes set under the table without being processed. This is even though Jones (the election supervisor) knew about them and had plenty of processing capacity to scan them hours earlier.
- Ready but not willing – the ballots were pre-processed. They were ‘taken out’ of their mailing envelopes, certified as valid, and were ready to be scanned. Yet, Jones decided to deviate from the ballot processing procedure and set them aside. Storing these ballots under the table doesn’t match the other ballot storage patterns. Ruby can also be seen supervising the placement of the boxes under the table, and it seems like she has some affinity for them.
- Manager vs. worker– Jones (the ‘man in red’ in Image 1) spent part of his day personally unpacking ballot envelopes instead of supervising the floor and improving the ballot scanning performance and accuracy. Why was he doing the manual pre-processing himself despite having excess worker capacity for this function?
- The transformation—When Jones got the call to re-mobilize the ballot count, his otherwise laid-back team, which had been scanning an average of 20K ballots per day (see Audio 1), suddenly transformed into Olympic sprinters who were able to increase their output capacity in record time. This raises some questions about the sudden outburst in motivation.
- Dungeons & Dragons the ballot edition – From the footage seen in the “Ruby Freeman-Instegram update,” it is clear that Fulton County was ‘adjudicating’ ballots out of sight and without supervision as early as October 19. Ruby sits alone in a cubicle with boxes of ballots (with many more in the corridors). It’s unclear what controls were implemented to prevent ballot processors from exploiting the system.
Audio 1: 11/3/2020 6:30 p.m. Fulton County Board of Elections call with Ralph Jones
Politics aside, it’s possible that these issues have a logical explanation and nothing nefarious happened there. But it’s also possible this is just the tip of the fraud iceberg. It would take minimal skilled investigative resources and some SIGINT to confirm or deny the voting fraud claims. An independent digital scan of the images of the GA ballots (which can be downloaded from multiple sources in a minute) would quickly help confirm the voting numbers. This scan would also quickly pick up show stoppers such as homemade ballots, ones that lack a fold line (i.e., ones that were never mailed), or signatures by a person other than the voter.
It would behoove all parties if the feds appointed a special counsel to investigate this as soon as possible. If they don’t, this event will enter history as the defining example of voter fraud and destroy public trust in electronic voting in the US.
References and Sourcing
Ralph Jones Sr, The absentee ballot ‘specialist’ in action
Ralph Jones Sr.: Fulton Election Board’s Top manager didn’t know he was a paid consultant’s agent
Ralph Jones Sr.: Atlanta mayor’s campaign paid firm registered to election official
Ralph Jones Jr: Political Communications and Media Strategist | Director of Communications
Rick Barron (Ralph’s boss): Controversial elections administrator with a history of election mismanagement
October 19 footage of Ruby Freeman processing ballots
Image 7: Speech pattern confirmation for a known Ruby Freeman source vs. the audio from the Red Ruby footage
Copyright 2020 Yaacov Apelbaum, All Rights Reserved.