Raffensperger Opens Investigation into Seminole County’s Late Upload of Election Day Results

Atlanta - Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has opened an investigation into Seminole County’s late upload of several hundred Election Day votes after the discrepancy was discovered during the state's post-election review and canvassing process. The votes changed the current unofficial outcome of the State House District 154 contest.

During routine post-election checks, the Secretary of State's office identified approximately 388 more voters recorded as having checked in at polling places on Election Day than the number of ballots reported as cast in Seminole County.

After the Secretary of State's office notified county election officials of the discrepancy, the Seminole County Board of Elections determined that a memory card containing election results had not been uploaded into the county's election management system.

The discovery changed the apparent outcome of the race for State House District 154. Prior to the discovery, incumbent State Representative Gerald Greene trailed by less than 100 votes. Following the inclusion of those results, Greene now leads by 262 votes. County election officials have until Monday to certify their election results.

"Georgia's election safeguards are designed to identify discrepancies, and that is exactly what these guardrails did," said Secretary Raffensperger. "Our office identified a significant discrepancy, alerted county officials, and uncovered a failure to properly upload election results. This oversight didn't just affect the numbers - it changed who was leading an election. That is unacceptable, and we intend to find out exactly how it happened."

The Secretary of State's investigation will examine how the memory card was overlooked, whether required election procedures were followed, and what corrective measures are necessary to prevent similar incidents in future elections.

"Every vote matters, and in a close election, even a relatively small number of unreported ballots can change the outcome," Raffensperger added.

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Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, and 2022. 2022 achieved the largest single day of in-person early voting turnout in Georgia midterm history utilizing Georgia’s secure, paper ballot voting system. Most recently, Georgia ranked #2 for Election Integrity by the Heritage Foundation, a top ranking for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation & Research and tied for number one in Election Administration by the Bipartisan Policy Center.