State elections board investigation reveals mistakes in Fulton County's 2020 audit

July 19th, 2023

Workers in Fulton County count ballots on Saturday as part of the statewide audit of the presidential race.

Emil Moffatt / WABE

An investigation by Georgia’s state elections board found vote counters in Fulton County made mistakes during an audit of the 2020 presidential election.

Mark Niesse is a reporter covering election issues for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He spoke with WABE’s Christopher Alston about what was revealed by the investigation.

He said the investigation attributed the mistakes to “human error,” including ballots that were double-counted and counted for the wrong candidates.

“While Fulton didn’t admit to much, they did sign their names onto this order that Fulton County must cease and desist and must have better policies and procedures for conducting future election audits,” Niesse said. “And Fulton County said, ‘Yes, we already have these new policies and procedures, and we agree to do better in the future.'”

However, the State Election Board confirmed that these mistakes did not change the outcome of the audit, which showed that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Georgia.

Niesse says this was the first audit done in Georgia on this scale, and Fulton is the state’s most populous county, so it makes sense that processes will improve with time.