Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) on Friday opened an investigation into a county’s failure to upload hundreds of votes that flipped a key House race, narrowing Democrats’ new majority.
According to Raffensperger’s office, a routine post-election review in Seminole County discovered nearly 400 missing votes, which were uploaded late. These late votes reversed the outcome of the District 154 House race from Democratic candidate Harry James to Republican incumbent Rep. Gerald Greene.
“Georgia’s election safeguards are designed to identify discrepancies, and these safeguards have done just that,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “Our office identified a significant discrepancy, alerted county officials, and discovered a failure to properly post election results online. This oversight not only affected the numbers, it also changed who was running an election. This is unacceptable, and we intend to find out exactly how this happened.”
Raffensperger’s office said it noticed a discrepancy between the number of votes cast in Seminole County and the amount transferred to the state during a routine post-election review. That’s when Seminole County discovered a memory card containing 388 votes had not been downloaded.
Raffensperger’s office is investigating exactly how this happened and whether any corrective action should be taken.
Democrats’ historic blue wave Tuesday not only flipped Congress, but dismantled Republican majorities in states where they had long held power. Among the top states is Georgia, where Republicans have long controlled both chambers of the General Assembly and have passed some of the nation’s toughest anti-voting laws.
Not a single Republican won a statewide race in Georgia, giving Democrats a slim majority in the state House of Representatives for the first time in 22 years. Democratic victories also significantly reduced the Republican Party’s hold on the state Senate.
After adding these missing votes, Greene now leads the race with 262 votes. Flipping the race means Democrats’ control of the state House could be limited to a single seat. County election officials have until Monday to certify the election.
“Every vote counts, and in close elections, even a relatively small number of unreported ballots can change the outcome,” Raffensperger added.
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