Investigators Dispatched After Fulton County Discovers 'Issue' with Ballot Reporting

Dylan Gwinn 8 Nov 2020

Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Georgia’s top election official is dispatching a team of investigators after a ballot “issue” was discovered in one of the counties most responsible for giving former Vice President Joe Biden the lead over President Trump.

While Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) did not reveal the nature of the issue with the ballots, he did announce late Saturday that investigators were headed to State Farm Arena in Fulton County to “secure the vote and protect all legal votes.”

“Fulton County has discovered an issue involving reporting from their work on Friday. Officials are at State Farm Arena to rescan their work from Friday,” Raffensperger said. “The Secretary of State has a monitor onsite, has sent additional investigators, and dispatched the Deputy Secretary of State as well to oversee the process to make sure to thoroughly secure the vote and protect all legal votes. Observers from both political parties are there as well.”

Brendan Keefe, chief investigator at Atlanta’s WXIA, says that the issue “*may* significantly affect the current Biden lead in Georgia.”

Fulton County issued a statement later on Saturday, in which they disclosed that “some ballots were not captured” in Friday night’s vote, and “a smaller number” of ballots were “not scanned.”

“Out of an abundance of caution, all provisional, military, and [Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act] ballots scanned on Friday, November 6 will be rescanned tonight,” the statement read. “The upload made last night will be pulled and replaced with tonight’s rescanned file.”

Fulton County Election Director Richard Barron, described the issue as a failure to transfer files to a server, necessitating the rescanning of some ballots. He also said the rescanning process was complete.

“Barron said his team rescanned 342 ballots on Saturday ‘so that we balanced out,’ adding that previously some files did not transfer to a server and some ballots had to be scanned on Saturday. He said he did not know if a software issue or physical was to blame.”

Roughly 7,200 votes separate Biden and Trump in Georgia, a narrow margin which prompted Raffensperger on Friday to declare that the state was headed for a recount.

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