The Georgia State Election Board (SEB) has decided not to have the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections investigated for alleged election law violations that the county committed in the 2020 presidential election. 

This is according to a new report from the Georgia Recorder.

The board, however, does appear to be trying to prevent another violation in the 2024 election.

First, we'll take a look at the alleged violations and how the board has decided to handle them.

What happened?

An independent investigation has found that thousands of ballots submitted in the 2020 presidential election were double-counted by the county.

The Georgia Recorder reports, "State officials reported that there were 3,075 duplicate ballot images, but they were unable to determine how many of the ones cast were tabulated in the recount."

President Joe Biden won the state by about 12,000 votes, and the claim is that there were not enough invalid votes to swing the state in Trump's favor. The reader may remember that a recount was held and that, in the recount, Trump gained 939 votes on Biden in Fulton County.

It is worth noting that there were other alleged violations by Fulton County as well in the last election, such as not properly backing up data to servers during the recount that was done.

The board, though, claims that it did not find any fraud in the last election. It claims that there were certainly problems with the way Fulton County handled the election, but not problems that amount to fraud.

Looking forward:

In a 2-1 vote, the board has decided not to further pursue a lot of these allegations. The board declined to recommend anything to the state attorney general for investigation.

One board member, Janice Johnston, was not happy with this outcome. "Either the votes should be invalidated or the paper ballots should be investigated to verify their authenticity. There’s no way this election or recount should have been certified," she said.

The board did take some steps to prevent future violations.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "The State Election Board reprimanded Fulton County and ordered an independent election monitor" for the upcoming election.

If such a monitor is not hired, then members of the board are threatening to reopen an investigation into Fulton County's alleged election violations.

We'll have to see how this plays out going forward. But, the bottom line is that these Fulton County officials are only getting a slap on the wrist for what appears to be some serious violations.