64. Georgia has 16 electoral votes, with astatewide vote tally currently estimated at 2,458,121for President Trump and 2,472,098 for former VicePresident Biden, a margin of approximately 12,670votes\.
65. The number of votes affected by thevarious constitutional violations exceeds the marginof votes dividing the candidates.
66. Georgia’s Secretary of State, BradRaffensperger, without legislative approval,unilaterally abrogated Georgia’s statute governingthe signature verification process for absentee ballots.\
67. O.C.G.A. § 21-2-386(a)(2) prohibits theopening of absentee ballots until after the polls openon Election Day: In April 2020, however, the StateElection Board adopted Secretary of State Rule 183-1-14-0.9-.15, Processing Ballots Prior to Election Day. 21That rule purports to authorize county electionofficials to begin processing absentee ballots up tothree weeks before Election Day.\
68. Georgia law authorizes and requires asingle registrar or clerk—after reviewing the outerenvelope—to reject an absentee ballot if the voterfailed to sign the required oath or to provide therequired information, the signature appears invalid,or the required information does not conform with theinformation on file, or if the voter is otherwise foundineligible to vote. O.C.G.A. § 21-2-386(a)(1)(B)-(C).
69. Georgia law provides absentee voters thechance to “cure a failure to sign the oath, an invalidsignature, or missing information” on a ballot’s outerenvelope by the deadline for verifying provisionalballots (i.e., three days after the election). O.C.G.A. §§21-2-386(a)(1)(C), 21-2-419(c)(2). To facilitate cures,Georgia law requires the relevant election official tonotify the voter in writing: “The board of registrars orabsentee ballot clerk shall promptly notify the electorof such rejection, a copy of which notification shall beretained in the files of the board of registrars orabsentee ballot clerk for at least two years.” O.C.G.A.§ 21-2-386(a)(1)(B).
70. On March 6, 2020, in Democratic Partyof Georgia v. Raffensperger, No. 1:19-cv-5028-WMR(N.D. Ga.), Georgia’s Secretary of State entered aCompromise Settlement Agreement and Release withthe Democratic Party of Georgia (the “Settlement”) tomaterially change the statutory requirements forreviewing signatures on absentee ballot envelopes toconfirm the voter’s identity by making it far moredifficult to challenge defective signatures beyond the 22express mandatory procedures set forth at GA. CODE §21-2-386(a)(1)(B).
71. Among other things, before a ballot couldbe rejected, the Settlement required a registrar whofound a defective signature to now seek a review bytwo other registrars, and only if a majority of theregistrars agreed that the signature was defectivecould the ballot be rejected but not before all threeregistrars’ names were written on the ballot envelopealong with the reason for the rejection. Thesecumbersome procedures are in direct conflict withGeorgia’s statutory requirements, as is theSettlement’s requirement that notice be provided bytelephone (i.e., not in writing) if a telephone numberis available. Finally, the Settlement purports torequire State election officials to consider issuingguidance and training materials drafted by an expertretained by the Democratic Party of Georgia.
72. Georgia’s legislature has not ratifiedthese material changes to statutory law mandated bythe Compromise Settlement Agreement and Release,including altered signature verification requirementsand early opening of ballots. The relevant legislationthat was violated by Compromise SettlementAgreement and Release did not include a severabilityclause.
73. This unconstitutional change in Georgialaw materially benefitted former Vice PresidentBiden. According to the Georgia Secretary of State’soffice, former Vice President Biden had almost doublethe number of absentee votes (65.32%) as PresidentTrump (34.68%). See Cicchetti Decl. at ¶ 25, App. 7a8a.2374. The effect of this unconstitutionalchange in Georgia election law, which made it morelikely that ballots without matching signatures wouldbe counted, had a material impact on the outcome ofthe election.
75. Specifically, there were 1,305,659absentee mail-in ballots submitted in Georgia in 2020.There were 4,786 absentee ballots rejected in 2020.This is a rejection rate of .37%. In contrast, in 2016,the 2016 rejection rate was 6.42% with 13,677absentee mail-in ballots being rejected out of 213,033submitted, which more than seventeen times greaterthan in 2020. See Cicchetti Decl. at ¶ 24, App. 7a.
76. If the rejection rate of mailed-in absenteeballots remained the same in 2020 as it was in 2016,there would be 83,517 less tabulated ballots in 2020.The statewide split of absentee ballots was 34.68% forTrump and 65.2% for Biden. Rejecting at the higher2016 rate with the 2020 split between Trump andBiden would decrease Trump votes by 28,965 andBiden votes by 54,552, which would be a net gain forTrump of 25,587 votes. This would be more thanneeded to overcome the Biden advantage of 12,670votes, and Trump would win by 12,917 votes. Id.Regardless of the number of ballots affected, however,the non-legislative changes to the election rulesviolated the Electors Clause.