Georgia recount reportedly finds more than 2,600 ballots that weren't tallied

(Image credit: Megan Varner/Getty Images))

published 16 November 2020

Georgia's recount may have given President Trump a slight boost, but not nearly enough to affect the presidential election's outcome in the state, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday.

The recount uncovered more than 2,600 ballots in Georgia's Floyd County that weren't initially tallied, which could give Trump about 800 new votes, Floyd County's Republican Party chair Luke Martin told the AJC. President-elect Joe Biden's lead in the state is currently around 14,000, so those votes seemingly won't alter the result, especially since Martin said that while the uncounted ballots are "very concerning" there does not appear to be a "widespread issue." Martin added that he's "glad the audit revealed" the missing votes.

Elections officials in Floyd County haven't directly addressed the news, but the elections board chair reportedly did "tentatively" confirm to The Rome News-Tribune that around 2,500 more votes were recorded during the recount than on election night. The AJC reports the issue is related to an optical scanner that stopped working after a few weeks of early voting. Martin said county election officials were supposed to rescan all paper ballots on that machine, but about half of them weren't recorded. It's unclear if the problem was the result of human error or technical difficulties. Read more at The Atlanta Constitution-Journal.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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