Georgia poll worker in hiding after false social media claims

ATLANTA — With all eyes on Georgia’s razor-thin presidential vote margin, falsehoods are swirling on social media about supposed ballot counting irregularities there.

Among the most widely shared examples is a video that has racked up millions of views on Twitter. It claims to show a poll worker crumpling up an absentee ballot.

As it turns out, it shows no such thing. Richard Barron, the Fulton County elections director, said yesterday that the poll worker seen in the video was discarding paper instructions, not a ballot, which would have been much larger than the paper seen in the video.

Barron also said the worker was in hiding after being harassed online due to the false claims.

Here’s a look at the facts:

CLAIM: A video showing the ballot count in Fulton County, Georgia, shows fraud because a poll worker processing absentee ballots crumples one up.

THE FACTS: Election officials say the poll worker in the video did not crumple or discard a ballot.

“It’s been questioned whether the poll worker featured in the video was discarding one of those ballots. The answer is no, undeniably no,” Barron told reporters at a Friday evening news conference at the Fulton County elections warehouse in Atlanta. “At no time was the poll worker able to extract a ballot.”

— AP