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Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020

Is a hand recount of close election results required by Georgia law?

Esther Honig, Gigafact
no

Under Georgia election law, the Secretary of State may conduct a "risk-limiting audit" of one chosen race after an election. This is intended as a routine security procedure to check paper ballots against the machine tallies to ensure accuracy, with a statistical sampling of paper ballots counted by election officials. This measure helps guard against any potential hacks or interference in the voting process.

Following the close tally of the presidential race on the Nov. 3 ballot, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger selected that race to undergo the audit. However, due to the large volume of ballots and the close margin, election officials said they would audit every ballot—effectively performing a hand recount of the vote. A recount would normally take place at the request of the trailing candidate, after election results had been certified.

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