In sworn affidavits, two Republican poll watchers testified they were instructed to go home at 10:30 pm on election night. The statements provided by Mitchell Harrison and Michelle Branton, describe events within State Farm Arena and how the evening unfolded.
Affidavit link (submitted in federal court, Pearson v. Kemp)
Mitchell’s testimony clearly outlines how around 10 pm a “younger lady with long braided but blonde hair yelled out to all of them that they should stop working and come back tomorrow at 8:30 am.” The statement went on to clarify that everyone, except a few workers, stayed behind. It was only a few hours later that the poll watchers became aware that the count was still ongoing at the State Farm Arena. According to the testimony, the poll observers arrived back at the State Farm arena around 1:00 am that same morning.
Sometime thereafter while at English Street, we heard from the news crew that ballot counting was still going on at the State Farm Arena, even though we were told it had ceased for the night and would not resume until Wednesday morning. – Mitchell Harrison
As the poll observers arrived back a the State Farm Arena, they found that the unobserved counting had stopped just minutes before.
When Trevin McKoy and I arrived at State Farm, we were told that counting had been going on, but had just ended in the last few minutes. We asked the security representative to take us to the ballot counting area, initially he was hesitant and called for his supervisor for instruction. The second person arrived and agreed to take us in. He told us his name was Phillip. When we arrived, at the same observation area, there was no one counting ballots. Again, we were told that those counting the ballots had “just finished” and that there had been about five people there. Trevin and I that that was odd because at 10:30pm., Regina Waller and the supervisor lady had said they were done counting for the night, and would not resume until 8:30am the next morning.
These accounts, provided under penalty of purgery, are in direct opposition to what has been reported by fact-checking websites. Lead Stories put out an article trying to debunk testimonies regarding events occurring in the State Farm Arena. In it, it directly addresses the claim that poll workers were told to go home.
There was never an announcement made to the media and other observers about the counting being over for the night and them needing to leave, according to Watson, who was provided information by the media liaison, who was present. She said they just followed the “cutters” as they left. – Lead Stories
The heightened focus on events surrounding the State Farm Arena brings many questions to the surface. As thinking Americans, we must remain objective and critical of every piece of information that seeks to help us answer those questions. But, when clarity is provided in the form of sworn testimonies, and those testimonies corroborate one another, it is difficult to push them aside because lead stories told us to.
