Meet Georgia’s most influential conspiracy theorist

Favorito has spent five years in court seeking to review Fulton County’s 2020 ballots. He believes it will show counterfeit ballots cost President Donald Trump the election here — though he doesn’t know who orchestrated the scheme.

“We don’t know (who did it). We haven’t seen the ballots,” Favorito said in a recent interview. “As long as the ballots remain secret, the cover-up continues.”

Investigators found numerous problems with Fulton County’s handling of the election, but no intentional misconduct. Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed by two recounts — including a computer count and a hand count of every ballot cast.

Favorito is not deterred. He’s filed multiple lawsuits seeking to scan and inspect the 2020 ballots. And he’s not fighting alone.

A wealthy election denier has helped bankroll his efforts. The right-wing majority on the State Election Board has taken up his cause. Last month, the Trump Justice Department filed its own lawsuit seeking access to the ballots.

Favorito’s admirers credit him with keeping the issue alive years after courts dismissed other lawsuits that sought to prove fraud.

“I think Garland gets a huge amount of credit,” said election security advocate David Cross, a former Georgia Republican Party official who has worked with Favorito. “He’s done a lot of work.”

Favorito’s critics say his history of embracing conspiracy theories shows he lacks credibility. And they doubt a fourth count of ballots would change the results or satisfy those who doubt them.

“There’s a certain contingent of people that know in their heart of hearts that the election was stolen, and they’re going to keep pushing and pushing until they find something that shows that it was,” said Carter Jones, who observed Fulton County’s conduct of the 2020 election for the Georgia secretary of state.

Favorito shows no signs of giving up. And he dismisses questions about his embrace of other conspiracy theories as irrelevant.

“The only thing that matters right now is, should Fulton County give up the ballots or not?” Favorito said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

Credit: Christine Tannous/AJC

Credit: Christine Tannous/AJC

Grand conspiracies

Favorito, an information technology consultant, has long been interested in Georgia politics — and conspiracy theories. In 2000, he wrote a book titled “Our Nation Betrayed,” which recounted his disillusionment with the political establishment.

In the book, Favorito traced his political awakening to 1996, when he overheard co-workers discussing the death of Vince Foster, a longtime confidant of President Bill Clinton who was found dead of a gunshot wound in 1993. Government investigations ruled Foster’s death a suicide. But his death sparked conspiracy theories that Foster had been murdered to cover up the president’s misdeeds.

Favorito’s research led him to conclude that the deaths of Foster and others were tied to Clinton’s involvement in shady real estate ventures, drug trafficking and other supposed wrongdoing. His book linked Clinton to some 70 “mysterious” deaths, suggesting shadowy forces wanted to keep him in office.

Clinton was not Favorito’s only fixation. His book espouses a dizzying array of conspiracy theories. Among them:

In 2002, Favorito issued a second edition of the book, which claimed the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad — not Osama bin Laden — may have been behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said the man in a video bragging about the attacks was not bin Laden, but an impostor.

He also claimed Jews manipulated public opinion through their control of the media and cited a book from a neo-Nazi press as his source.

“Jewish Americans have a high degree of control over American public opinion and many feel that they have a higher allegiance to Israel than to America,” Favorito wrote.

Favorito’s critics say his voting fraud claims are just his latest conspiracy theory. Marisa Pyle, Georgia director for the voting rights group All Voting is Local, cited some of Favorito’s beliefs at a recent State Election Board meeting.

“He would now like to be taken seriously before this board,” Pyle said.

Loren Collins, a local attorney who wrote a book on misinformation, brought a copy of Favorito’s book to the meeting.

“I find it concerning how influential he appears to be among certain people in state government,” Collin said in an interview.

In an interview, Favorito declined to discuss his book or the conspiracies cited there.

“It’s not relevant,” he said. “All you have to do if you want to assess my credibility is watch my presentation (at a recent news conference). That will tell you if I’m credible or not.”

In an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution touting his expertise, Favorito cited his 40 years in the information technology field. He noted he has testified in court cases and before the General Assembly.

In response to follow-up questions about various specific conspiracies cited in his book, Favorito again declined to discuss them. Instead, he accused the AJC of planning a “hit piece.”

A new conspiracy

Favorito cofounded the group VoterGA to focus on election integrity and spent the last 20 years raising alarms about purported security issues with electronic voting.

So when Trump claimed the 2020 election had been stolen, Favorito and others found the allegations plausible.

Investigators found plenty of problems in Fulton County’s handling of the election. They found workers double-scanned several thousand ballots during the recount, though they found no evidence that the ballots were counted twice.

Most recently, Fulton officials admitted poll workers did not sign tabulation tapes from voting machines that had counted 315,000 ballots cast during the early voting period. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger described the oversight as a “clerical error” that does not invalidate the ballots.

Jones, who spent nearly 270 hours observing the county’s handling of the election for the secretary of state’s office, reported chain-of-custody problems during ballot processing, careless handling of ballots and other problems. But he found no intentional misconduct.

“At no time did I ever observe any conduct by Fulton County election officials that involved dishonesty, fraud or intentional malfeasance,” Jones reported.

New allies

Favorito isn’t buying it. He doubts the conclusions of investigations overseen by Raffensperger, whom Favorito believes has a vested interest in ensuring no major problems come to light.

Asked to respond to Favorito’s comments, Raffensperger’s office released a statement noting that “publicly available findings of the hundreds of investigations into the 2020 election, including a full hand recount, disprove every claim of fraud or conspiracy in the legitimate results.

“While two independent surveys (conducted jointly by MIT and UGA in 2022 and 2024) prove an overwhelming majority of Georgians trust the integrity of the election process, there will always be some who refuse to believe facts and evidence,” the secretary of state’s office said.

In December 2020, Favorito and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Fulton County election officials seeking to scan and inspect the ballots, which could only be unsealed by a judge’s order. He said a review was needed to determine whether counterfeit ballots had tainted the election.

The lawsuit came amid a flurry of litigation seeking to overturn Biden’s victory or change voting rules ahead of the January 2021 Georgia runoff election that gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.

State and federal judges dismissed most of those lawsuits in a matter of days or weeks. But Favorito’s lawsuit has lingered.

Credit: Alyssa Pointer

Credit: Alyssa Pointer

A Henry County judge initially indicated he would allow Favorito’s group to inspect the ballots. But he dismissed the lawsuit in 2021. After state investigators told the judge they found no counterfeit ballots, he ruled the plaintiffs had not suffered a specific injury that would give them the right to sue.

In 2023, the Georgia Court of Appeals revived the lawsuit, asking the lower court to reconsider whether the plaintiffs had “standing” to sue in light of a recent Georgia Supreme Court ruling that expanded the right to sue in some circumstances. The case has since been assigned to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who has not ruled on the issue.

In an interview, Favorito said he doesn’t think the plaintiffs can get a “fair shake” because “the Fulton County judicial system will cover up for Fulton County.”

But the lawsuit is still alive. Favorito filed a second lawsuit seeking the ballots in 2024 — which also is pending.

Since filing the lawsuit, Favorito has acquired powerful allies.

Tax records show Favorito’s nonprofit, VoterGA, received $1.1 million in grants and contributions from 2021-24. Among his contributors was The America Project, which gave $255,000 in grants to VoterGA from 2022-24.

The America Project was cofounded by tech entrepreneur Patrick Byrne, a prominent Trump supporter who has spread false claims of a stolen 2020 election. The group also helped bankroll the 2021 Arizona election audit that failed to uncover fraud.

The Georgia State Election Board also has taken up Favorito’s cause. Last year, the board revived an investigation of Fulton County’s 2020 election conduct and subpoenaed a slew of election records.

And last month, the Department of Justice filed its own lawsuit seeking the Fulton 2020 ballots and other election records.

“We were hoping they would get involved, and I’m glad they did,” Favorito said. “It certainly exerts more pressure on Fulton County to comply with the law.”

Favorito isn’t the only one suspicious about the 2020 election. AJC surveys have repeatedly shown most likely Republican primary voters believe the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. And State Election Board meetings are often filled with people demanding further investigations.

Fulton County officials have fought attempts to unseal their ballots. County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts is frustrated by the continued attention on 2020.

“What are they after? We’ve been audited from every possible way. We’ve been looked at. We’ve been reviewed,” Pitts said. “If I were them, I’d be focused on 2026 and 2028, vs. going back to 2020.”

Favorito isn’t slowing down. According to VoterGA tax filings, he works 80 hours a week on voter integrity issues and takes no salary. And he insists his crusade is not about looking back.

“2020 is over and done,” he said. “But the problems still exist. Once we understand the problems, we can secure future elections.”

Jones, the election observer, doubts Favorito and others will find the fraud they’re looking for.

“They’re looking for the Ark of the Covenant, and they’re not going to give up,” he said. “People dedicate their lives to this sort of thing.”

This story has been edited to include more information about the work Garland Favorito does with his VoterGA organization.