Nearly every presidential ballot has been hand-counted. What’s next for Georgia?
County workers have inspected nearly all of Georgia’s five million presidential ballots by hand, and roughly 20 local offices are still conducting quality checks as state election officials prepare to finalize the results.
Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting system implementation manager, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that finalized audit results are expected to be released by noon Thursday. The state must certify its election results on Nov. 20; then the comes a possible recount request from the Trump campaign.
If the state certifies its results Friday, Trump’s team would have until Nov. 24 to request a recount under Georgia election law.
“We’ve found no other new memory cards,” Sterling said. “Nobody has forgotten anything that we’ve seen yet. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen between now and midnight.”
What has the audit found so far?
A majority of Georgia counties reported no or single-digit differences between their initial totals and the number of ballots counted during the hand audit.
Only four counties — Douglas, Fayette, Floyd and Walton — have had to reupload ballots to their final tallies as a result of “human error.” Errors in those counties cut Joe Biden’s lead by more than 1,000 votes statewide. The president-elect maintains a lead of nearly 12,800 over Donald Trump.
Tallies in other counties won’t change. The purpose of Georgia’s audit under current law is to confirm the outcome of the election, not the exact margins.
What happens next?
State election officials must “accept” the results of the by-hand audit and confirm the results before moving into state certification. That will involve some legwork, phone calls and a lot of computer screen watching, Sterling said.
“This isn’t something we’ve done before, so I don’t know if we have to do a formal (acceptance),” he said.
Once the state certifies the results, the Trump campaign could request a recount if Biden’s margin of apparent victory is within 0.5%. Unlike the risk-limiting audit, the recount would be done electronically.
State officials assume Trump’s team will ask for the recount, but Sterling said he hopes the hand audit will show that voting machines were counting Georgia’s votes correctly and discourage a recount request. The Secretary of State’s office has contacted Dominion Voting Systems, Georgia’s provider, to ensure counties have enough ballot scanners.
Counties will pay for both the cost of the audit and a recount if Trump requests it. The state is looking for ways to use some federal funds to offset audit and potential recount costs for local governments. Sterling said.
This work would occur alongside standard preparation ahead of the Jan. 5 elections.
“It is lawful request,” Sterling said of the recount. “It is an understandable request on some levels. And we will work with the counties to fulfill that request.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 5:54 PM.