Updated at 1:29 p.m. Wednesday
Georgia counties will soon start the process of hand-counting all 4.9 million votes cast in this year’s presidential election.
It’s part of a risk-limiting audit required by state law.
The secretary of state’s office is tasked with picking which race will be audited. In this case, it chose the presidential race where President-elect Joe Biden currently leads President Donald Trump by 14,000 votes.
“We understand the significance of this race, not just for Georgia but for every single American,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “At the end of the day, when we do a hand count, we can answer the question, exactly what was the final margin in this race.”
For almost two years, Raffensperger and his staff have championed the reliability of the state’s new voting system in correctly tabulating results using scanners and the QR code imprinted on every ballot.
But in this instance, Raffensperger says the count produced by hand will be the one certified by the state. He hopes to still have that done by the previously announced Nov. 20 deadline.
Raffensperger says, while state law only calls for recounts to be done by machine and only after the results are certified, the audit process for a race this close mandates a full hand recount.
“When you have 5 million votes and the margin is so close, 14,000, if we pulled out 10,000 votes, all of a sudden it could say, this is the person that won; we pull out 100,000 it says this person won; if we pull out a million, it says this person won,” said Raffensperger. “And that’s why mathematically you actually have to do a full hand-by-hand recount of all because the margin is so close.”
In the audit process, workers will separate ballots by presidential choice and then they will be fed through the scanner to verify against the hand count.
It’s a time-consuming process that will require counties to bring on extra staff to handle the workload. Raffensperger says the cost will likely fall on counties.
“Typically, the counties fund their own elections, and this is part of one of the things they buy into,” said Raffensperger.
Raffensperger denies his office was pressured into choosing the presidential race for an audit.
Trump has claimed, without evidence, widespread voter fraud in Georgia. This week, both of Georgia’s Republican U.S. senators called for Raffensperger’s resignation over what they described as mismanagement and a lack of transparency. They also provided no information to back up their claims.
The secretary of state also announced Wednesday that the Dec. 1 runoffs, including Public Service Commission races, have been pushed back to Jan. 5 to coincide with Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoff elections.
However, the runoff in the special election to temporarily fill Georgia’s 5th Congressional District seat will remain Dec. 1.
