STAFF REPORT :::
Spalding County Election Supervisor is responding to calls for her resignation made public today by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the local legislative delegation including Sen. Marty Harbin, Rep. David Knight and Rep. Karen Mathiak.
Ridley denies allegations that she acted outside the law, claiming instead that she and her staff worked to resolve the voting machine malfunction and ensure all Spalding County voters maintained their right to cast ballots.
Raffensperger claimed Tuesday in a press release that when Spalding County voting machines failed to work on Election Day, Ridley acted outside the law in using provisional ballots when emergency ballots are required.
“The mission of the Spalding County Board of Elections and Registrations is to ensure that no voter is disenfranchised. The reality is that at 7:05 am on election day, our system was not working, and we made a decision to utilize provisional ballots as required by law to address this emergency situation. Upon notification of the problem, a Dominion representative provided us with an access code that allowed the poll manager to access the system which allowed voters to cast their ballots,” stated a press release issued by Ridley’s office. “The decision to utilize this process was made according to the law promulgated by the Secretary of States in emergency situations. Later, Dominion sent their Technicians to all precincts in Spalding County to resolve the system issues.”
Ridley not only denies the allegation she made a false statement regarding the malfunction of Dominion voting machines, but she also claims there were irregularities in the lawsuit filed Nov. 3 by Mathiak and Knight that resulted in the extension of poll hours.
“The assertion that I spreaded (sic) a false rumor concerning the system malfunction is baseless. In fact, members of the Spading County Legislative Delegation filed a lawsuit to extend the voting hours of the Spalding County polls and cited a problem with the voting machines. The lawsuit was never formally served on the Spalding County Board of Elections and I was not summoned to court to testify,” Ridley said. “Our office has requested the Georgia Secretary of State to investigate the legality of the lawsuit and resulting order to extend the voting hours at all Spalding County polls.”
Ridley also denies having ever recanted any statement concerning the voting machine malfunction, and she cited a later statement regarding the issue.
That subsequent statement read, “In reference to public comments made concerning a purported glitch during the 2020 Presidential Election, the Spalding Country Board of Elections and Registrations was initially told that there may have been a software update performed on the night before election day. I was informed that Dominion would be investigating to determine the cause of the computer malfunction that required our poll managers to utilize their access cards to allow voters to cast a ballot. Dominion completed their investigation and has assured us that no system can be updated remotely without the knowledge of Dominion. My office verified the data that was sent relating to the absence of an update by reviewing the Poll Book voter log files which indicated that the last voter file update to the pollbooks was done after the completion of Early Voting, on Saturday the 31st of October. Therefore, the investigation by Dominion has ruled out the possibility of an update on the night before the 2020 Presidential Election and Dominion stated that their Representative mis-spoke. As relates to the malfunction of the machine, it is still being investigated. (sic all)”
Ridley’s press release included a statement attributed to Spalding County Board of Elections Chairman Margaret Bentley.
“The board will convene an emergency meeting on December 2, 2020 to discuss this issue, but I can personally state that Director Marcia Ridley has my full support and I have no intention of asking for her resignation. This election had the largest turnout in the history of Spalding County with 30,250 voters casting their ballots on election day, early voting, and absentee ballots. Our staff handled the emergency with the utmost level of professionalism in a county that saw over 65% of the electorate casting their ballots for President Trump.”
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