The recount process was paused Sunday in Fulton County, Georgia, after a newly-purchased Dominion Voting Systems mobile server crashed due to human error.
“Technicians from Dominion have been dispatched to resolve the issue,” Fulton County officials said in a statement, according to 11Alive. “The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has also been alerted to the issue and is aware of efforts to resolve the problem.”
A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office told the Daily Caller that the issue was due to an unidentified Fulton County election official simply not following instructions.
Gabriel Sterling, the voting system implementation manager for Georgia, said the server crashed because the county “literally ignored the basic instructions and the directions of the vendor on this one,” according to 11Alive.
The spokesperson for the Secretary of State told the Daily Caller that the county was given an express server for logic and accuracy testing on the machines set to be used in tomorrow’s 5th district runoff election.
However, the county tried to “cut a corner” by using the express server to recount the presidential elections despite a Dominion employee reportedly telling the county not to do that, according to 11Alive. This caused the server to crash because a security measure flagged the process after the timestamps were off.
“It has nothing to do with servers being wiped. Nobody directed that. That’s just a lie,” Sterling said, according to the report. “It’s made up out of whole cloth. And it is the kind of stuff we are having to deal with.”
The issue has been correct, according to the Secretary of State spokesperson.
Fulton County officials did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Fulton has reportedly finished counting 88 percent of all ballots cast, including absentee, early in-person and provisional ballots, according to 11Alive. All Georgia counties must complete the recount by Dec. 2.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp certified the election results Nov. 20, cementing President-elect Joe Biden as the winner. Biden won the state by 12,670 votes, prompting the Trump campaign to request a recount.
#BREAKING: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says he’ll certify election results: “State law now requires the Governor’s office to formalize the certification, which paves the way for the Trump campaign to pursue other legal options in a separate recount if they choose.” pic.twitter.com/LHWUKMCjjd
— The Hill (@thehill) November 20, 2020
President Donald Trump accused Kemp on Sunday of having done “absolutely nothing” to question the election results while branding Raffensperger as an “enemy of the people” for allowing what he called a “fraudulent system” to operate in the state, according to Fox News.
Trump suggested Monday that Kemp, “the hapless Governor of Georgia,” should force Georgia counties to match signatures on envelopes during the recount. (RELATED: Michael Eric Dyson: Trump Is Claiming Election Fraud In Major Cities Because They’re Primarily Black)
Why won’t Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes. It will be a “goldmine” of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2020
When voters submit an absentee ballot request on a paper application, they must sign it. Election officials then compare that signature with the signature in voter registration files before a ballot is sent out, according to the Associated Press (AP). When the ballots are returned, the signature on the outer envelope is again compared to the signature in the voter registration system, according to the AP.
However, the recount process does not include the revivification of signatures found on absentee ballots, according to The New York Times (NYT). Once election officials match the signature on the outer envelope to the signature in the voting registration system upon receipt of an absentee ballot, the envelope and ballot are separated to protect voters’ privacy, according to the NYT. Therefore, there is no way to match the ballot signatures during a recount.