An error in DeKalb County, Georgia during a recount caused a voting batch to be labeled incorrectly, appearing to overstate Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden’s performance.
David Shafer, Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, announced the error on Twitter Wednesday morning saying that while the batch of ballots contained 1,081 votes for Biden and 13 for Trump, the batch was labeled as containing 10,707 votes for Biden.
“One of our monitors discovered a 9,626 vote error in the Dekalb County hand count,” Shafer said. “One batch was labeled 10,707 for Biden and 13 for Trump — an improbable margin even by DeKalb standards. The actual count for the batch was 1,081 for Biden and 13 for Trump,” Shafer said.
One of our monitors discovered a 9,626 vote error in the DeKalb County hand count. One batch was labeled 10,707 for Biden and 13 for Trump – an improbable margin even by DeKalb standards. The actual count for the batch was 1,081 for Biden and 13 for Trump.
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) November 18, 2020
The error reportedly occurred Sunday, as recorded in a signed affidavit, and was observed by a Republican poll watcher who was monitoring the “audit, vote review, hand count, and recording” of votes at the DeKalb County Board of Elections. During their observations, the GOP poll watcher, joined by another Republican, noticed the mistake on the early voting ballot box and brought it to the attention of election officials.
The officials corrected the error, finding two fewer total votes than previously thought.
Shafer also pointed out that other errors may have gone unnoticed due to limitations and restrictions on how many observers could be assigned to counting tables.
“We were limited to 1 monitor for every 10 counting tables and we were kept some distance from the tables,” he wrote. “There is no telling what we missed under these unreasonable restrictions. The miscounted batch had been signed off by two official counters.”
DeKalb County reportedly completed their “state-mandated, risk-limiting” audit Sunday night.
Georgia began a full recount and audit less than week ago. During this period multiple errors have been discovered by election officials.
In Fayette County, 2,755 votes that were left out of the first count were found, and 1,577 of the votes were eventually tallied for President Donald Trump, while 1,128 for Joe Biden.
“The votes that were found through our audit process here in Georgia in Floyd, Fayette, and Walton counties will be added to all races where votes were cast on those ballots,” said Georgia Voting System Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling. “Both Senator Perdue and Bubba McDonald are still in runoffs even with these vote additions.”
The votes that were found through our audit process here in Georgia in Floyd, Fayette, and Walton counties will be added to all races where votes were cast on those ballots. Both Senator Perdue and Bubba McDonald are still in runoffs even with these vote additions. #gapol
— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) November 18, 2020
According to WSBTV, 57 counties left the recount with the same ballot count as before, but 21 counties are either above or below the original ballot count and 32 counties are “off by single-digit numbers and are being investigated.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden is leading Georgia by just under 13,000 votes.
