5,000+ Uncounted Ballots Found in 3 GA Counties as State's Election Recount Tally Expected Thursday
Election officials have uncovered thousands of previously uncounted ballots in three separate batches during Georgia's state recount, and the majority of them were for President Trump. Plus, a significant error was prevented in a separate incident during the recount.
Officials across Georgia had an 11:59 p.m. Wednesday deadline to complete a hand tally of the presidential race in the state. The hand recount of nearly 5 million votes stems from an audit required by a new state law and must be done before Friday's deadline for state certification. The results from that recount are expected to be released Thursday.
The hand count is meant to ensure that the state's new election machines accurately tabulated the votes, and state election officials say it isn't expected to change the overall outcome.
However, county election officials have discovered several significant errors during the recount. David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, tweeted Wednesday morning about a vote error in DeKalb County.
"One of our monitors discovered a 9,626 vote error in the DeKalb County hand count," Shafer wrote. "One batch was labeled 10,707 for Biden and 13 for Trump - an improbable margin even by DeKalb standards. The actual count for the batch was 1,081 for Biden and 13 for Trump."
One of our monitors discovered a 9,626 vote error in the DeKalb County hand count. One batch was labeled 10,707 for Biden and 13 for Trump - an improbable margin even by DeKalb standards. The actual count for the batch was 1,081 for Biden and 13 for Trump.
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) November 18, 2020
"We were limited to 1 monitor for every 10 counting tables and we were kept some distance from the tables. There is no telling what we missed under these unreasonable restrictions. The miscounted batch had been be signed off by two official counters," Shafer said.
And as CBN News reported on Tuesday, Georgia's Floyd County found around 2,600 uncounted ballots during its audit. Trump reportedly gained 800 votes from that batch of ballots.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office cited human error and "gross negligence" in the 2,600 missing votes in Floyd County.
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Now, two other counties are reporting they have found more uncounted ballots. WSB-TV in Atlanta reports Fayette County election workers failed to add 2,755 votes to the initial count. An official with the Secretary of State's office told the station the ballots were scanned to a card, but those votes were never uploaded to be included in the final count.
Justin Gray, an investigative reporter for the Atlanta station tweeted, "New: a memory card was found during the audit in Fayette county with 2,755 votes. Decreased Biden statewide lead by 449. New margin total statewide in GA is a 12,929 lead for Biden."
New: a memory card was found during the audit in Fayette county with 2,755 votes. Decreased Biden statewide lead by 449. New margin total statewide in GA is a 12,929 lead for Biden
— Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) November 17, 2020
Also, Walton County found more uncounted votes. The Walton Tribune reports county election officials found 284 missing ballots from one precinct with 176 votes that were cast for President Trump.
Lori Wood, chairwoman of the Board of Election, told the newspaper the precinct in question had two scanners, and, "One of them got uploaded and another one didn't."
A story on RedState.com asked, "Once, one might argue, is an accident. Twice is indicative of a problem. So how many counties does this involve?"
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the secretary of state's office will release the audited numbers from all 159 counties at once, likely on Thursday, on a website that will include electronic tabulations, scanned images of tally sheets, and other supporting documents.
