On Wednesday, a judge in Georgia dismissed a lawsuit that claimed widespread voter fraud occurred in Georgia's most populous county, Fulton, during the 2020 presidential election. The suit was brought forward by Garland Favorito, a longtime critic of the state's election system, and nine Georgia voters and Trump supporters.

The lawsuit which was filed in December, following the former president's defeat in the 2020 election, aimed to review over 147,000 absentee ballots for illegitimate votes. Although the lawsuit was not seeking to overturn the election results, the plaintiffs were claiming that the county officials failed to follow state law and properly supervise the election, therefore leading to rampant voter fraud. The lawsuit went as far as claiming that election workers at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta had unloaded “suitcases” of fraudulent ballots and that ballots were counted more than once in order to tip the scales in Biden’s favor. These claims have long since been debunked.

"All citizens of Georgia have a right to know whether or not counterfeit ballots were injected into the Fulton Co. election results, how many were injected, where they came from, and how we can prevent it from happening again in future elections," Garland Favorito explained during the early days of the lawsuit. "It is not adequate for any organization to secretly tell us there are no counterfeit ballots and refuse to let the public inspect them."

Henry County Superior Chief Judge Brian Amero dismissed the case citing that the plaintiffs in the suit had no standing because they “failed to allege a particularized injury.” Judge Amero also touched on the Georgia secretary of state’s response to an investigation that looked into allegations of voter fraud. The day before the lawsuit was dismissed, the secretary of state’s office filed a brief that explained, "the Secretary's investigators have been unable to substantiate the allegations that fraudulent or counterfeit ballots were counted in the 2020 General Election in Fulton County." The secretary of state’s office reviewed 1,000 ballots for any of the claimed voter fraud but was not able to find that any fraud had taken place.

Jude Amero explained that the secretary of state’s office provided a “substantive and detailed response” to its request for an update on the investigation of voter fraud.

In May 2021, Judge Amero gave the green light for the over 145,000 absentee ballots to be unsealed. However, the recount was to take place under the review of Fulton County election officials. At the time, Fulton Commission Chairman Robb Pitts blasted the review saying, “It is outrageous that Fulton County continues to be a target of those who cannot accept the results from last year’s election,” Pitts said. “The votes have been counted multiple times, including a hand recount, and no evidence of fraud has been found.”

Following the news of the lawsuit's dismissal, Pitts praised Judge Amero’s ruling, describing it as a “win for democracy.” Pitts added in his statement, “This lawsuit was the result of the ‘big lie,’ which is nothing more than a meritless conspiracy theory being spread by people who simply cannot accept that their side lost. Its defeat here today should echo throughout the nation.”