Thread by @jpeebles

I'm seeing some accusations here on The Twitters of mysterious ballots just "showing up" in Atlanta in the POTUS race. Uhhhhh ... No.

Please let me explain how we've been tracking the uncounted mail-ins the past few days. #gapol

There's a giant data file that is posted on the Georgia Sec'y of State's website each morning. It lists every early/absentee/by-mail voter, by what means they voted & when. Shows who requested a mail-in ballot, & when, and whether they returned it and if it was "accepted"

We grab that file and query it to count the number of returned, accepted mail-in ballots in each Georgia county.

That file is tracking the beginning of the process: A voter casts their ballot for a group of candidates in certain races.

Then there's a second data file the Sec'y of State publishes. It shows the number of *counted* by-mail votes for each of the candidates. This file gets updated much more frequently than the other file I mentioned, as counties upload tranches of counted ballots.

We also grab that file and query it to total up the number of counted by-mail votes in each race.

Then we subtract the counted by-mail votes from the total number of by-mail votes cast in the race.

The answer is the number of as-yet-uncounted mail-ins in that race.

And that's the number we at the @ajc have been reporting to you, as it changed, since the polls closed Tuesday night.

Now, the total # of by-mail votes cast has changed a little since Tuesday night with each morning's new data dump of that file, and there's a reason for that

The reasons being, first of all, new mail-ins that arrived *on Election Day* count as long as they were received by 7 p.m. that day. So those showed up in Wednesday morning's data file.

Also, Georgia is one of the states that allows military & overseas by-mail votes to count if they come in a few days after the election by the stated deadline. (I think our deadline for those for this election is like 5 p.m. today.)

So, we know exactly who asked for a mail-in ballot, we know exactly who successfully mailed their ballot back (or dropped it off in person) and we know exactly whose mail-in ballots were accepted by the county. And when.

The mail-ins ballots all have the voter's voter registration number on them, and their voter reg # (which is NOT their Social Sec #) is also in the giant data file put out every AM by the Sec'y of State's office. So, hit a few key strokes, get a list of all the by-mail voters.

Let me give you a real-world example so you can see what I mean.

Here's a slice of all the Peebleses in the master absentee voter file that was updated this morning.

And the one row not blurred out in that screenshot is me.

You can see from the screenshot, I am registered in Fulton County, and I voted in-person Oct. 20. I believe "vote center id" field is a code for my polling place, which was the North Fulton Service Center on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs.

And -- hey, look at this! -- a tweet from me on Oct. 20, taken just off the front steps of the North Fulton Service Center on Roswell Road, wearing my awesome new hat from the gift shop at Stone Mountain

https://twitter.com/jpeebles/status/1318537672772694016?s=20

But you see what I mean: there's a data file the state has, which is publicly available to everyone, that shows that I voted, when I voted, where I voted and how I voted and, had I voted by mail, my actual ballot number. And that's not all

It also records all the precincts and House/Sen/city council districts/wards/etc I live in, if I needed to have help at the polls casting my ballot, and was my ballot challenged.

Had I voted by mail, or tried to, it would have recorded when I asked for ("applied") for a mail in, ballot, was it returned, when it was returned, was it accepted or the reason for its rejection. AND if I got a mail ballot and later voted in person, it shows that TOO!

And did you know there is a third data file -- publicly available, but it'll cost you $250 from the state -- that holds details on each voter. Name, address, birthyear, gender, how long they've been registered to vote, and when/if they last voted. First-time voter? We know!

We can match the voter registration # on the Absentee Voter File (updated 1x/day) to the voter reg # in the $250 file and know all about the early/mail-in voters: by county, by city, by race, by gender, by age, by first-time voter status.

This is all publicly available info, friends. You want it? Just ask for it. Two of the 3 files I've mentioned here are on the Sec'y of State's website right now. Click some buttons and download it for free. (The $250 file, you have to order it.)

Ever wonder how political candidates know how to reach you to send you those irritating slick mailers? *One* of the ways is, they're getting all these same data files I've mentioned here. They're doing the same thing we in the press are doing.

I tell reporters, about the only thing we don't know about a voter is who they actually voted for.

And their phone number. Georgia does not give out the voter phone numbers. (The candidates have other ways of getting your phone number to robo-call you. Sorry.)

But here's my point: Folks alleging that shadowy characters can walk into a county office building and dump a washtub full of "ballots" onto the table the same way your sneaky co-worker Fred rigged the door prize drawing at the office Christmas party -- that's not how it works.

Everything, and everybody, has a number. Everything is tracked. & nearly everything is public (except SSNs & phone #s). We want to know if so-and-so really voted by mail? We have their name. We can always ask them.

This is how it's worked in Ga. for several years now. /END