At least 2,600 uncounted ballots were found Monday in Floyd County, Georgia, as the state continues a manual recount.
The newly uncovered ballots could help tighten the gap between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, who narrowly won the state by approximately 14,000 votes. Luke Martin, chairman of the Floyd County Republican Party, said Trump could gain about 800 votes, according to The AJC.
#BREAKING: @GaSecofState‘s office confirms Floyd County has found 2,600 ballots during audit. Says Sec. Raffensperger wants the elections director to step down. @FOX5Atlanta #gapol
— Claire Simms (@Claire_FOX5) November 16, 2020
MORE: @GabrielSterling said the votes uncovered in Floyd County don’t change the final outcome in Georgia, but they do change the percentages slightly–only about an 800 vote gain for President Trump. @FOX5Atlanta #gapol
— Claire Simms (@Claire_FOX5) November 16, 2020
The issue occurred due to an error by county election officials who didn’t upload votes from a memory card in a ballot scanning machine, per AJC.
The ballots were cast during early in-person voting.
“It’s very concerning,” Martin said, per AJC. “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.”
State Elections Director Chris Harvey said the new ballots will be rescanned and counted before Friday’s finalization.(RELATED: Is It Actually Legal To Move To Georgia To Vote In Its January Runoff?)
“You want every vote counted right the first time, but this is one of the goals of the audit: to identify problems,” he said, per AJC. “All the votes will be uploaded, and the results will be what they are.”
Gabriel Sterling of the Secretary of State’s office said the issue was due to human error, according to WSB-TV 2.
“It is the only county where we’ve had an issue like this,” Sterling said, per WSB-TV 2. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s not an equipment issue. It’s a person not executing their job properly … This is the kind of situation that requires I think a change at the top of their management.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger now wants the elections director, Robert Brady, to step down over the incident, according to Fox 5.
#BREAKING: @GaSecofState‘s office confirms Floyd County has found 2,600 ballots during audit. Says Sec. Raffensperger wants the elections director to step down. @FOX5Atlanta #gapol
— Claire Simms (@Claire_FOX5) November 16, 2020
“The secretary, since this was such an amazing blunder and they had issues in August, would like to see that elections director in Floyd County step down from his position,” Sterling said, per WSB-TV 2.
Raffensperger announced last week the state would conduct a hand recount as the Trump campaign alleged mass voter fraud was taking place in Georgia and other battleground states. The campaign alleged that at least four dead Georgians had been found on the 2020 voter rolls, but they did not provide evidence.