Fox News questions process of vote counting observation in Georgia senate runoff
Fox reporter Matt Finn: “Are you able to observe? Sure, but do you have an accurate depiction of what's going on? Maybe not necessarily”
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From the January 5, 2020, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): President Trump has insisted that Fulton County is to blame for his loss in Georgia, alleging hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes there. And tonight, Fox is inside the massive absentee ballot counting processing center that's in Fulton County, where the ballots are right now being processed. So, is it going any better than it went last time? Fox's Matt Finn has the story there for us tonight. Matt, what can you tell us? We're all watching this with intent gazes tonight, and a lot of -- lot of nervous people in both parties.
MATT FINN: You know Laura, actually it's quite stunning. A short while ago a judge here in Fulton County ordered that this entire floor be rearranged. It's hard to tell at home, but the mental barriers here have been rearranged in this room so that observers can walk down the center of the -- of the room and aisles to get closer to the absentee ballot counting process.
Throughout the day, we had observers telling Fox News they felt they were just being kept too far away to adequately tell what was going on. One person said "No way can I tell what's going on in the center of this room." So, a judge here in Fulton County ordered that observers be able to get at least 10 feet away from the process here, and some say even that is too far.
Also, there were some blue tri-fold posters, kind of like those science project posters that were up in the corner of this room earlier, and I had at least one observer tell me they felt like that was blocking the process. The judge also ordered those posters to be removed. So, some late developments here in Fulton County. Fulton County said it received 108,000 mail-in ballots and processed more than 100,000, and it expects all of them to be processed tonight, Laura, but the workers here on this floor have been warned that they may be working until 2 o'clock in the morning.
INGRAHAM: Matt, I can't believe that with everything that transpired, with all the complaints and the challenges to observing the counting in Georgia and in other states, that this was still an issue tonight, and that a judge actually had to intervene. I mean, it's great that the judge intervened, but I don't know. I'm looking 10 feet across the room right now, I don't know if I could read what's on a -- what's on a ballot 10 feet away. So, I think a lot of people aren't going to be all that satisfied with hearing that there's still problems that have to be fixed by judges in real time during a pivotal election. That's wild.
FINN: Yeah, for sure. I mean, we are basically, you know, we were earlier at a distance, about 10 feet from the process. And it -- it is hard to tell what is going on there. Yes you could see maybe envelopes being opened, you could see computers but you can't see the screens, so are you able to observe? Sure, but do you have an accurate depiction of what's going on? Maybe not necessarily. And, you know, we were in Detroit and observers there told us the same thing, "We're just too far away," and then election workers tell us we have to protect the integrity, we can't have any names released, so it seems like there really is no remedy so far. But like you said, earlier today I had observers tell me "We are too far away, we cannot tell what's going on," and a judge did intervene here in Fulton County.