Missing 2020 poll tallies in Georgia don’t prove 20,713 votes never existed. Other records are available

CLAIM: A public records request revealed that 20,713 votes that were included in the 2020 election night tally in Fulton County, Georgia, do not exist. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False.& A complaint& submitted to the Georgia State Election Board in July 2022 includes an email from Fulton County stating that ballot tabulator results, or poll tapes, printed on Election Day “do not exist” for 10 machines. But poll tapes are just one part of the paper trail that documents the vote, which is also recorded on memory cards and in official statements released by Georgia counties, among other procedures. Three separate counts of Georgia’s votes all found similar results in Fulton County, with then-candidate Joe Biden winning both the county and the state each time. THE FACTS: Although the 2024 election is well underway, social media posts questioning the results of the 2020 race are still circulating. “BREAKING: Fulton County counted 20,713 votes that did not exist in the 2020 election, according to a public record request,” reads one post on X, formerly Twitter. “Trump ‘lost’ Georgia by 11,779 votes.” The post had received approximately 28,000 likes as of Wednesday and 12,800 shares. A post on Instagram that included a screenshot of...