Did a test run using Dominion voting machines "sequestered" in Ware County, Georgia, reveal that an algorithm secretly gave Biden 26% extra votes? No, that's not true: The chief election officer in Ware County told Lead Stories the claim is "100% fake." No machines were sequestered and no test run was conducted, Elections Supervisor Carlos Nelson said. A high-ranking official with the Georgia secretary of state's office also confirmed to Lead Stories it was false. Lead Stories previously debunked the claim that "Trump Team" had seized Ware County machines for testing. The apparent main source of this claim said he heard it from a woman who told him she heard it from a friend and did not know where her friend heard it.
The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) posted by Robb Hurst, an accountant in Georgia, on December 6, 2020. The Twitter thread opened:
Ware County, Ga has broken the Dominion algorithm:
Using sequestered Dominion Equipment, Ware County ran a equal number of Trump votes and Biden votes through the Tabulator and the Tabulator reported a 26% lead for Biden.
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Mon Dec 7 21:07:10 2020 UTC)
Hurst admitted in a tweet that he did not have confirmation of the claim when he said he had gotten the information about the test run from a Republican Party official in another south Georgia county, and he was hoping to get the supporting documents. He wrote:
I have reached out to Debbie Browning of Tift County Republican Party to request any source docs.
This is what that post looked like on Twitter at the time of posting:
I have reached out to Debbie Browning of Tift County Republican Party to request any source docs.
-- Robb Hurst, CPA 🐸 (@robbhurstCPA) December 6, 2020
Hurst later posted a tweet that made it clear there was no credible source. He said Browning told him she heard it "from a friend and is not sure of original source."
In response to trying to track down more info to the original post by Ms. Browning on the Tift County Republican Party page, she said it was from a friend and is not sure of original source. I will keep trying to find additional info other than the articles and prior posts here.
-- Robb Hurst, CPA 🐸 (@robbhurstCPA) December 6, 2020
Lead Stories has reached out to Browning and we will update this story when we receive a response.
Hurst did respond to Lead Stories, explaining that Browning eventually provided him with information from Garland Favorito:
That info posted was from research done by Garland Favorito. Debbie had sent me some info. She pointed me to Garland's project.
Lead Stories interviewed Garland Favorito, who heads the pro-Trump group VoterGa, who was initially quoted by a talk show host on a podcast as saying the machines were seized and he studied them. But Favorito told us on Sunday, December 6, 2020, that he never claimed to have controlled or studied a Dominion voting machine. He called the reports "a myth."
Lead Stories debunked the initial claim that Dominion voting machines from Ware County had come into the control of the Trump campaign and they had run tests that revealed voter fraud. Read Fact Check: Trump Team Does NOT Have Dominion Machine From A Small Georgia County That Shows Votes Flipped from Trump to Biden.
