Georgia recount: GOP claims monitor found 9,626 vote error in favor of Biden
Georgia GOP claimed Wednesday that an election monitor has discovered a 9,626 vote error in Dekalb County during the
presidential race recount that would have substantially increased Democratic candidate
Joe Biden's lead over
President Trump had it not been caught.
Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer told the
Washington Examiner his office emailed an affidavit from the monitor about the miscounted ballots to the secretary of state's general counsel Tuesday night and has requested an investigation.
"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 the new discovery "does not reduce the margin" but "stops the margin from being wrongly increased."
He also aired a reoccurring grievance about the number of monitors allowed to watch the recount process.
"We are limited to one monitor for every 10 counting tables, and we were kept some distance from the tables," he said. "There is no telling what we missed under these unreasonable restrictions. The miscounted batch had been signed off by two official counters."
Gabriel Sterling, an election official, said finding the DeKalb recount error shows the process is working.
According to the affidavit seen by the
Washington Examiner, the GOP recount monitor said the incident took place Nov. 15 at the DeKalb County Board of Elections.
The monitor had been there to witness the audit, vote review, hand count, and recording of votes.
The monitor started logging the results from sheets on the ballot boxes with the votes per candidate.
"After logging the votes for nine of the boxes, I saw a pattern or expectation of number of votes," the monitor said. "On the 10th box, I observed the total for Donald J. Trump to be 13 and the total for Joe Biden to be 10,707. I turned to the lady next to me [another GOP poll watcher] and stated loud enough for all to hear, '10,000 for Biden? That is not right.'"
The poll watchers then called over a poll manager and, after a brief discussion, was told the box would be recounted.
"I noted a sticker on the box which stated the following: Location - Elmwood; Scanner 2; Box 2 and 1,105," the poll watcher said. "Once the count was completed, I noted the count totals were: Trump = 13, Biden = 1,081. A difference of 9,626 less votes that had been credited to Biden in the recount and submitted for tabulation."
Georgia election officials have been under intense pressure over the past week as the state conducts an unprecedented audit of the presidential race. More than 5 million Georgians voted in the election.
Counties have until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday to complete their recount. The results will be made public Thursday and certified Friday by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Once that takes place, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will certify the 16 Democratic electors for the state by 5 p.m. Saturday. The Electoral College will meet on Dec. 14 to cast the state's votes for president.
Trump and his allies have criticized Georgia's voting system as well as Raffensperger over his handling of the race. They have also taken aim at Kemp, blasting him for not criticizing the process.