Audit Supports Returns in Special Election

(Leesburg, Ga.) – An audit conducted Monday of the paper ballots cast in last week’s special legislative election supported the results produced by Georgia’s new secure paper-ballot system, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

“Security is the topmost concern, and the paper ballots of the new voting system showed again how well it is protected by being auditable,” he said. “Audits give people confidence that their votes are secure and accurately counted.”

The public process consisted of manually examining the paper ballots from a randomly selected ballot-box to ensure the hand count of the ballots’ plain text matched the ballot scanner’s tally. Had the box randomly chosen not contained at least 3% of the votes cast in Lee County, additional boxes would have been chosen, also randomly, and their ballots would have been counted by hand as well.

A Georgia law enacted this year requires audits after state general elections beginning in November 2020. Raffensperger initiated Tuesday’s audit to provide voters certainty about this year’s elections. He also asked the State Elections Board to enact a rule requiring public notice of the audits.

The special election was held in Senate District 13 to fill the vacancy left by the death of Sen. Greg Kirk.

The Georgia Secretary of State is the state’s chief election officer and has the mission to help ensure secure and accurate elections. County election officials run the actual elections and handle voter registration.

Georgia is a leader in election innovation and access with automatic voter registration through the Department of Driver Services, three weeks of early voting – including a Saturday, and no-excuse absentee voting. It is the top state in the number of motor voter registrations and experienced record registration and a record increase in turnout in the last election cycle.

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