Monday, January 27, 2025, 2:48AM |  32°
MENU
SECTIONS
OTHER
CLASSIFIEDS
CONTACT US / FAQ
Advertisement
Ballots are stored on portable shelving at a Cobb County Election facility on Monday in Marietta, Ga.
1
MORE

Georgia hand tally of votes is complete, affirms Biden lead

Mike Stewart/Associated Press

Georgia hand tally of votes is complete, affirms Biden lead

ATLANTA — A hand tally of ballots cast in Georgia for the presidential race has been completed, and it affirms Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow lead over Republican President Donald Trump, according to results released Thursday by the secretary of state’s office.

The Associated Press declared Mr. Biden the winner of Georgia and its 16 Electoral College votes on Thursday, after the hand count confirmed the former vice president leads Mr. Trump by roughly 12,000 votes out of nearly 5 million counted.

The complete hand recount stemmed from an audit required by a new state law and wasn’t in response to any suspected problems with the state’s results or an official recount request. The secretary of state’s office has until Friday at 5 p.m. to certify the election results. The results that will be certified are the totals certified by the counties, not those resulting from the audit, elections officials have said.

Advertisement

The governor then has to certify the slate of presidential electors by 5 p.m. Saturday.

The counties were supposed to finish the hand count by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. Results were posted on the secretary of state’s website Thursday evening.

No individual county showed a variation in margin larger than 0.73%, and the variation in margin in 103 of the state’s 159 counties was less than 0.05%, a memo released with the results says.

“Every single vote was touched by a human audit team and counted,” said Gabriel Sterling, who oversaw the implementation of the state’s new voting system for the secretary of state’s office. “Obviously, the audit confirms the original result of the election, namely that Joe Biden won the presidential contest in the state of Georgia.”

Advertisement

Once the state certifies the election results, the losing campaign has two business days to request a recount since the margin remains within 0.5%. That recount would be done using scanners that read and tally the votes and would be paid for by the counties, the secretary of state’s office has said.

The AP did not call Mr. Biden the winner after election officials in Georgia initially completed and released results of the presidential election, because his margin over Mr. Trump in the state was 0.3 percentage points. It is AP’s practice not to call a race that is — or is likely to become — subject to a recount.

While not formally a recount under the letter of state law, the hand tally conducted to complete the audit was effectively a recount in practice. No available evidence suggests a machine recount of ballots already reviewed by hand will result in a different outcome. Therefore, AP declared Mr. Biden the winner in Georgia.

“The recount process simply reaffirmed what we already knew: Georgia voters selected Joe Biden to be their next president,” Biden campaign spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg said in an email. “We are grateful to the election officials, volunteers and workers for working overtime and under unprecedented circumstances to complete this recount, as the utmost form of public service.”

The presidential race was selected by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for review under a new state law that says one race in the general election must be audited by hand to check that machines counted ballots accurately. Mr. Raffensperger said the tight margin of the presidential race meant a full hand count of ballots was necessary to complete the audit.

Votes that hadn’t previously been counted were found in several counties during the audit, which required recertification of the election results in those counties.

In Floyd County, more than 2,500 ballots were discovered during the audit that hadn’t previously been scanned, and the secretary of state’s office had called for the firing of the county’s chief elections clerk, Robert Brady. The county elections board on Thursday voted to issue a written reprimand to Mr. Brady and, because it was his second written reprimand within six months, to fire him in accordance with county policy, board member Melanie Conrad said in an email.

Several other counties found memory cards with votes that hadn’t been uploaded and counted prior to the audit.

First Published: November 20, 2020, 12:52 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (6)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Pedestrians walk past the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, where the governor's office is located. Republicans are planning their 2026 bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro..
1
news
Pa. Republicans planning 'unified and strategic' approach to unseating Josh Shapiro in 2026
Bill Sunseri, president of Pennsylvania Macaroni Co., stands in his family’s store on Jan. 6 in the Strip District.
2
life
Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. has a new full owner at the helm
Texas A&M's Shemar Stewart (4) runs off the field during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Auburn, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Auburn, Ala.
3
sports
Ray Fittipaldo's first 7-round Steelers mock draft: Deep DL class too enticing?
Firefighters responded to a house fire in Upper St. Clair on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. One person was killed, and four were injured, including two police officers.
4
local
A wave of deadly Pittsburgh-area house fires puts a spotlight on safety
Meredith Miller of Upper St. Clair.
5
news
Woman who died in Upper St. Clair fire remembered as devoted churchgoer and teacher
Ballots are stored on portable shelving at a Cobb County Election facility on Monday in Marietta, Ga.  (Mike Stewart/Associated Press)
Mike Stewart/Associated Press
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story