There has been a great deal of bad information, misinformation, rumor, and gossip over the chain of events that occurred last nigh at the Spalding County Elections Office. The facts of this incident are as follows.
A Spalding County Sheriff’s Office supervisor responded to the Election’s Office last night to a call about observers being denied access to the Election’s Office. He heard the complaint and documented it in an incident report. The complainants were told to contact the Secretary of State’s Office and the report documenting the complaint would be available to them. According to the supervisor, everyone he spoke to was very peaceful and understanding.
A short time later, the Spalding County supervisor and a City of Griffin Officer returned to the Election’s Office at the request of Election’s Office employees, to escort them to their vehicles. There again was no incident and all was peaceful.
We received a third call to respond to the Election’s Office regarding paperwork that had been located in a dumpster behind the building. The same supervisor responded to the scene. He contacted me and advised me that there was paperwork in the dumpster as had been described to him.
At that point I told him to clear the people from around the area of the dumpster, block off the area with crime scene tape, notify our on-call investigator and crime scene investigator and have them respond to the scene. When they arrived, on my orders, they photographed and documented the dumpster, its contents, and the area around it. They then bagged the entire contents of the dumpster, loaded it into a truck, and transported the contents to the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office where it was secured under lock and key. We allowed anyone on scene that wanted to follow the truck transporting the materials to the Sheriff’s Office to do so, and some did. I also had deputies go to all 18 polling places in Spalding County and check dumpsters and trash for any election related documents. No documents or elections materials were found at any of those polling places.
This morning at approximately 9:00 a.m., an investigator from the Secretary of State’s Office arrived at the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office, and along with my crime scene investigators and criminal investigators. While I was standing with them, they went through each bag, documenting and photographing what was found. The contents of those bags will be secured at the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office until further orders from the Secretary of State’s Office.
To clear up a few of the rumors:
1. No one was allowed into the Election’s Office last night. Those having that issue have been directed to contact the Secretary of State’s Office with their complaints.
2. On my orders, people were asked to step away from the dumpster and its contents, and they complied immediately. “Crime Scene” tape was put up in order to keep anyone away from the dumpster until its contents could be photographed and contents secured by my investigators. Deputies stayed with the dumpster until this was accomplished.
3. There were no ballots found in the dumpster by anyone last night.
4. There were no ballots found in any of the contents of the dumpster that were searched this morning by the Secretary of State’s Office and my investigators
5. What was found were empty envelopes that were used to mail ballots to the election’s office. Those envelopes are marked “Ballot”. Each had been opened and they were all empty.
6. There were documents, not ballots, found in the contents of the dumpster that for security reasons, were improperly disposed of.
7. There was at no time an “angry mob” as has been described on social media.
8. There were no arrests.
9. The investigation has been turned over to the Secretary of State’s Office.
These are facts, not rumors allegations, misinformation, or gossip. Since last night I have been contacted by local and State officials regarding this incident as well as local and state level community groups. I have kept them abreast of any updates regarding this incident and the allegations surrounding it. I will continue to do so if further incidents occur.
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