The Georgia recount uncovered 2,600 uncounted ballots that could help cut the margin between President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump but are not nearly enough to change the outcome of the vote, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The recount found 2,600 ballots in Floyd County, likely helping Trump net about 800 votes, according to Floyd County Republican Party Chairman Luke Martin.
The votes were cast during the state’s early-voting period that were not initially recorded.
“It’s very concerning,” Martin told the outlet. “But this doesn’t appear to be a widespread issue. I’m glad the audit revealed it, and it’s important that all votes are counted.”
The issue appears to have been caused by an optical scanner that stopped working at some point during the early voting period. Officials were supposed to rescan all paper ballots on the machine but about half were not recorded.
It’s unclear whether the issue was caused by a technical malfunction or human error.
GOP pushing to toss ballots:
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, pressured him to throw out legal ballots amid the audit.
Raffensperger told The Wall Street Journal that Graham contacted him twice on Friday.
“After an initial conversation, Mr. Graham called back again and brought up the idea of invalidating absentee ballots from counties with higher rates of signature errors, Mr. Raffensperger said, adding that he had staffers with him on that call,” the outlet reported. “Mr. Raffensperger and his staffers agreed not to act on any of Mr. Graham’s suggestions, he said.”
“We have laws in place,” Raffensperger said.
Graham denies pressure:
Graham denied the claim, according to The Hill.
“I’m asking him to explain to me the system,” he said. “If you send a mail-in ballot to a county, a single person verifies the signature against what’s in the database. They don’t mail out ballots. You got to actually request one. So they expanded mail-in voting, and how you verify the signature, to me, is the big issue of mail-in voting. If you’re going to have mail-in voting, you got to verify the person who signed the envelope is also the person” in the database.
“That’s just ridiculous. If he feels threatened by that conversation, he’s got a problem. I actually thought it was a good conversation,” he said, adding that “he learned a lot about” the process.
