Georgia will recount presidential race by hand — not ballot scanners, official says
Georgia will conduct a “full, by-hand” statewide recount of every ballot cast during the presidential race between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday.
The news comes as Biden maintains a slight lead over the president in the Peach State, and as Raffensperger faces unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and mismanagement from fellow Republicans.
As of noon Wednesday, Biden led the president by 14,112 votes, according to state data.
“With the margin being so close, it will require a full, by-hand recount in each county,” Raffensperger said at a news conference. “This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass, all at once.”
The state’s top election official admitted the task would “be a heavy lift,” but promised to work with counties to get it done in time for the state to certify the election results. Raffensperger didn’t give an estimate on how long the recount could take, however.
The tabulations will be done manually and without the machines used to scan paper ballots printed by Georgia’s new touchscreen voting machines, WSB-TV confirmed with state officials.
“Many of these workers will be working plenty of overtime,” Raffensperger told reporters. “We have all worked hard to bring fair and accurate counts to assure that the will of the voters is reflected in the final count, and that every voter will have confidence in the outcome.”
Rep. Doug Collins, who’s leading the president’s recount team in Georgia, made a series of requests to the Secretary of State’s office on Tuesday, including demands for a full hand recount of votes “due to widespread allegations of voter irregularities, issues with voting machines, and poll watcher access.”
“We can — and we will — petition for this in court after statewide certification is completed if the Secretary of State fails,” Collins wrote in a statement.
The Associated Press declared Biden the overall projected winner on Saturday, but it has not called the race in Georgia.
The Trump campaign, Collins said, is also asking for a “full comparison” of absentee ballots and in-person and provisional ballots cast in Georgia. It also wants Raffensperger’s office to “check for felons and other ineligible persons who may have cast a ballot.”
“We are hopeful he (Raffensperger) will preemptively take this action today to ensure every Georgian has confidence in our electoral process,” Collins said.
The requests come a day after Republican Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler demanded the secretary of state’s resignation, calling the handling of Georgia’s election “an embarrassment,” the Macon Telegraph reported.
Raffensperger’s office has denied claims of widespread voter fraud and election mismanagement.
“We know the system counted properly,” Gabriel Sterling, who manages the state’s voting system, said Monday. “We know the ballots that were there were counted properly and correctly. We’re going to have an audit to prove it.”
In Georgia, the losing candidate can request a recount if the margin is less than 0.5% percent of total votes cast. An election superintendent can also request a recount, according to McClatchy News.
During recounts, ballots are typically scanned and counted by machines — not people.
“The state’s new touchscreen voting machines print paper ballots that voters then insert into scanners,” McClatchy News reported. “During a recount, these paper ballots are re-inserted into machines to be counted.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Georgia will recount presidential race by hand — not ballot scanners, official says."