Hand count done
Post-election audit in Catoosa affirms tabulation of general election with one more vote for Trump
A hand count of 32,756 ballots cast in the November election in Catoosa County shows that only one vote change: it switched from Joe Biden to President Trump.
“Citizens can be confident that the 2020 general election was accurate,” said Catoosa County Elections and Registration Board Chairman Ricky Kittle. “Our bi-partisan, open and transparent audit of ballots by hand count also shows the process to verify our election was secure with no missing or extra ballots.”
“The net correction of one vote out of 32,756 paper ballots reflects a change of 0.00003 percent, which does not affect the outcome of the 2020 election,” said Catoosa County Elections and Registration Director Tonya Moore.
The results of Catoosa County’s hand count were uploaded to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office on Monday, Nov. 16, and will be included in the statewide tabulation of more than 5 million ballots from all 159 counties.
“I want to thank our staff and poll workers for their hard work and commitment to completing our RLA as accurately and quickly as possible,” Kittle said. “Their hand count of every ballot affirmed a complete, transparent and structured process that proved our election and ballot tabulation was accurate.”
Hand counts in nearby counties
There were no apparent issues in Walker, Gordon, Chattooga and Bartow counties. Each completed their hand count without any significant changes reported.
Walker County Director of Elections and Registration Danielle L. Montgomery said their count was completed Monday afternoon, Nov. 16. Only 18 votes changed out of a total 29,496 ballots, which she chalked up to human error.
In Floyd County, a hand count found about 2,500 ballots in the presidential race weren’t counted.
Elections Board member Melanie Conrad characterized the issue as a “technical issue caused by human error. … The machines only do what we tell them to do.”
The just over 2,500 votes aren’t likely to affect any down-ballot local races — all of which had large margins. It also isn’t enough votes to change state-level runoff races.
According to Floyd County GOP Chairman Luke Martin, there were an additional 1,643 votes for Republican President Donald Trump, 865 for Democrat President-elect Joe Biden and 16 for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen.
According to the Secretary of State’s website, 27,120 Floyd County residents cast a ballot for Trump, 10,972 for Biden and 496 for Jorgensen. The newly reported ballots aren’t included in those totals.
Georgia count
Statewide, Biden won by nearly 13,000 votes, a slim margin in a race where just under 5 million Georgians cast a ballot.
Georgia’s governor and top elections official on Friday, Nov. 20, certified results showing Biden won the presidential race over Trump. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified results reported by the state’s 159 counties that show Biden with 2.47 million votes, Trump with 2.46 million votes and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen with 62,138. That leaves Biden leading by a margin of 12,670 votes, or 0.25%.