Established Fact
At approximately 10:30 p.m. on November 3, 2020, Fulton County election worker Wandrea “Shaye” Moss made an announcement to media indicating that ballot scanning would be suspended until the following morning. Most credentialed observers and media departed. Secretary of State monitor Carter Jones arrived at approximately 11:52 p.m. and documented in contemporaneous field notes that Moss stated: “The media just packed up when I released all the staff opening and sorting ballots.” Official sealed ballot containers—which had been visible to monitors for hours before the departure—were subsequently retrieved for continued scanning. The ballot containers were confirmed as official sealed containers, not suitcases, by a frame-by-frame Georgia election official review of the surveillance footage. The Georgia State Election Board found no wrongdoing (noted as an interested body per project policy). Established Fact: the departure of observers, resumption of scanning, and video sequence are confirmed by primary sources; the characterization of events as fraudulent is disputed.
Citations
Carter Jones contemporaneous field notes (released by John Solomon, June 2021): Scribd – Carter Jones Fulton County Notes. Jones arrived at State Farm Arena at approximately 11:52 PM and recorded observations about the ballot scanning operation.
WSB-TV frame-by-frame analysis of State Farm Arena surveillance video: WSB-TV, “Georgia Election Officials Show Frame-by-Frame What Really Happened in Fulton Surveillance Video”. Georgia election officials conducted a frame-by-frame review confirming that the containers retrieved from beneath tables were official sealed ballot containers that had been in place and visible to monitors for hours before the media and observers departed.
AP Fact Check, “Fact Check: Trump Indictment, Fulton Suitcases”: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-indictment-fulton-suitcases-pipe-654281257169. AP confirmed that state investigators determined the containers were official sealed ballot cases that had been present and visible throughout the night; three law enforcement agencies (GBI, FBI, and SOS investigators) reviewed the video and found no evidence of fraud. User instruction: Georgia SEB findings are noted as coming from a body with an interest in its own proceedings.
Carter Jones field notes record that Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a Fulton County election worker, made an announcement to media around 10:30 PM on November 3, 2020 indicating that ballot scanning would be suspended until the following morning. Carter Jones arrived at State Farm Arena at approximately 11:52 PM and recorded observations of the continued ballot scanning activity. See Carter Jones Fulton County Notes (Scribd, released June 2021)
Observers (media and partisan) departed after approximately 10:30 PM when media cameras were packed up and staff were announced as released for ballot processing. Carter Jones’s notes do not record a contemporaneous verbal announcement that scanning was “complete” — they record that scanning was ongoing when he arrived at ~11:52 PM.
Ballot scanning continued after observers departed. Carter Jones’s notes confirm scanning was ongoing when he arrived at ~11:52 PM. The period during which scanning continued without credentialed observers present is documented. Georgia SEB investigated and cleared Fulton County election workers; the SEB’s findings are noted as coming from a body with an interest in its own proceedings.
Carter Jones’s notes do not record a direct verbal statement that scanning was complete and finished. Jones recorded Moss’s explanation that “The media just packed up when I released all the staff opening and sorting ballots” — which Jones recorded as distinguishable from an affirmative false representation. The “materially false representation” characterization in prior project sources goes beyond what Jones’s notes on their face establish. See Carter Jones Fulton County Notes (Scribd)
Video surveillance shows ballot containers retrieved from beneath a table at State Farm Arena. State investigators and the AP determined these were official sealed ballot containers that had been present and visible to monitors throughout the evening. See fn. 16–17 for frame-by-frame analysis.
The Georgia State Election Board formally investigated the State Farm Arena episode and found no evidence of election fraud. Separately, GBI, FBI, and SOS investigators reviewed the full surveillance video and found no evidence of wrongdoing. These findings are noted here; per user instruction, SEB findings are attributed to a body with an invested interest in the outcome of its own proceedings.
The existence of surveillance video of State Farm Arena on Election Night is an established fact. The WSB-TV frame-by-frame analysis of that video constitutes the primary independently available review.
O.C.G.A. § 21-2-562 (Georgia election fraud statute); see also O.C.G.A. § 21-2-493 (public notice requirements for ballot tabulation).