How long did the imaginary burst waterpipe delay the ballot-counting?

Journalist Ben Brasch tweeted on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, at 7:06 p.m., that processing of absentee ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, was delayed by four hours because a waterpipe had burst in a room.

In contrast, the 11 Alive news company reported that the the processing was delayed by two hours. This report originally was dated November 3 at 8:26 p.m., but the report was updated on Wednesday, November 4 at 10:27 a.m.

If we assume that 11 Alive said two hours consistently in its original and updated articles, then Brasch was told at about 7:06 p.m. that the delay was four hours, but an 11 Alive journalist was told at about 8:26 p.m. that the delay was two hours.

The supposed pipe-burst had happened at about 6 a.m. and had been fixed by 8 a.m. -- roughly 12 hours before the two journalists were told these quite different estimates of the delay-time.

I speculate that the 11 Alive article originally, on Tuesday evening,  said that the delay was four hours. Then the article was updated on Wednesday morning to say that the estimated delay was two hours. (I am sure that someone can find out what the original article said, but I myself do not know how to do it.)

I speculate that the original plan was to count ballots for four hours during the middle of the night -- from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m.. Then. if that late counting ever were questioned, the explanation would be that a burst waterpipe had delayed the counting by four hours. Therefore, some ballot-counters had to work from from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. The explanation would be supported by the journalists' reports that had been planted on the evening of Tuesday November 3.

As it turned out, however, some Republican observers who had left at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday had decided to return to the counting location after midnight. At about 1 a.m., they arrived back at the location, where they learned that the vote-counters had departed just a few minutes earlier.

Because the Republican observers arrived at about 1 a.m., the late-night vote counting did not last four hours, after all. Rather, the late-night counting lasted only two hours.

Of course, the Republican observers were watched constantly after they left at 10:30 p.m. As soon as the Republican observers decided to return to the counting location, the late-night counters were warned to get out quickly. 

In order to fix the story that had been planted to the 11 Alive journalist, he was advised on Wednesday morning to update his article by replacing the expression four hours with the expression two hours.

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What does a delay of a few (e.g. two or four) hours mean? For example, the 11 Alive article includes the following two sentences:

Fulton County election officials said they are behind - possibly by about two hours - counting absentee ballots after a pipe burst near a room at State Farm Arena where some of those ballots were being held.

The remaining ballots would be counted by Friday or Saturday [November 6 or 7], though most could be done by Wednesday [November 5].

On Tuesday evening, it is absurd to say that there is a two-hour or four-hour delay in a project that might be finished on Friday or Saturday. The real delay is three or four DAYS -- from Tuesday until Friday or Saturday.

Why say absurdly on Tuesday evening that there is a two-hour or a four-hour delay? The only reason for saying so is to justify an intention to work two hours or four hours in the middle of the night, Tuesday-Wednesday.

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On Thursday, November 5, Frances Watson, the Chief Investigator of the Georgia Secretary of State, signed a so-called Declaration of Frances Watson. Her Declaration includes the following sentences:

On November 3, 2020, the Secretary of State's Office received complaints that staff of the Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections directed clerks, public observers and media personnel to leave the State Farm Arena location where ballots were being tabulated due to a water leak at the State Farm Arena, but Fulton County staff continued to scan ballots at the State Farm Arena.

The Secretary of State's Office opened an investigation into the incident at the Sate Farm Arena. Our investigation revealed that the incident initially reported as a water leak in the evening on November 3rd was actually a urinal that had overflowed in the morning of November 3rd, and did not affect the counting of votes later in the evening.

Watson addressed her Declaration to a US District Court in a civil action, but several of her statements seem to be false. For example, she writes that her office received the relevant complaints on Election Day, November 3. Those complaints said that public observers were told on November 3 to leave the ballot-counting location due to a water leak. Watson does not identify any such complainants.  

The actual complaint was made on the morning of Wednesday, November 4. Republican observers complained that they had returned to the State Farm Arena location after 1 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4 and had learned that vote-counters had departed just a few minutes earlier. 

The Republican observers did not complain that they had been told to leave due to a water leak. Rather, they complained that they had been told falsely that all the vote-counting was suspended at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening until 8:30 on Wednesday morning. 

Watson misinformed the US District Court about the day when she received the complaint and about the essence of the complaint.

What did Watson want the US District Court to misunderstand?

The US District Court was misled by Watson to think wrongly that the Republican observers returned to the State Farm Arena location before midnight, still on November 3. Then, the Republican observers complained that they had been told to leave at 10:30 because of a water leak. The US District Court was supposed to think that the Republican observers were confused about some water leak.

Watson did not want the US District Court to understand that, in fact, the Republican observers returned to the State Farm Arena location at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4, and then learned that vote-counting had continued until almost 1 a.m. The Republican observers subsequently complained to Watson's Office during office hours on Wednesday morning. Their complaint was about the unobserved vote-counting in the middle of the night.

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In general, Watson's reporting and evaluation of events seem to be deceptive. The US District Court and the public should exercise the utmost skepticism when considering any of her statements. Another dubious statement in her Declaration is this:

Video taken hours before shows the table being brought into the room at 8:22 a.m. Nothing was underneath the table then.

At 10 p.m., with the room full of people, including official monitors and the media, video shows ballots that had already been opened but not counted placed in the boxes, sealed up and stored under the table.

Georgia's Office of the Secretary of State should provide to the US District Court and to the public a video clip of the event at 10 p.m. in order to confirm Watson's dubious Declaration.

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Another Georgia official whose statements are dubious is Ralph Jones, Fulton County's Registration Chief. According to 11 Alive, Jones described the flowing-water problem as follows:

Fulton County Registration chief Ralph Jones said that the pipe burst just after 6 a.m. Tuesday in the room above where they ballots were being kept, and water was draining down to the left side of the room where the ballots were.

In contrast, Watson told the US District Court that the flowing-water problem was a urinal that overflowed. Either Jones's statement was false or Watson's statement was false.

The idea that some flowing water delayed the vote counting for two to four hours is preposterous. 

It's likely that both statements were false. In fact, there was no flowing-water problem at all. I think that both Watson and Jones participated in the creation of a fiction to justify ballot-counting for two to four hours in the middle of the night.

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Continued

The Scanners' Long, Covered Table

The Target Dot on the Scanners' Long, Covered Table