A Tool Built by Election Deniers Said These Voters Were Dead. We Found Them Alive.

A tool promoted by conservative election activists was used to identify four supposedly deceased voters in Forsyth County, Georgia, as grounds to challenge their ballots. ProPublica found that all four were alive, and the county election board rejected the challenge. The case shows how activists seeking evidence of voter fraud continued pursuing challenges after Democrats won statewide offices in Georgia.

The tool, ELLY’s Election Monitor, was developed by Election Integrity Network member Rick Richards and combines public records such as voter files, address-change records, tax documents and obituaries. Richards said he provided Forsyth County data at board member Max Clavijo’s request; activists had also discussed sharing data from more than 3,000 counties with monitors and Republican candidates. The tool has been criticised for errors and for lacking personal identifiers that could distinguish people with similar names.