ATLANTA — A previously missing election machine memory card in Seminole County reversed the apparent outcome of a legislative race where early results showed an incumbent Republican lost his seat.
After election night, the state’s unofficial tally showed Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, trailing Democrat Harry James by fewer than 100 votes.
That changed on Friday, after the missing memory card was found and its contents downloaded.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said in a statement that Greene now leads with 262 votes.
(As of Saturday, the secretary of state’s website showed Greene with 10,193 votes to Democrat Harry James’ 9,932, a difference of 261 votes.)
Democrats appear to have flipped 13 more Republican seats. They appear to have lost two, but still appear poised to win 92 seats without Greene’s, enough to control the House for the first time in two decades. But the apparent reversal of Greene’s race means Democrats could only have one vote.
There are 180 seats in the House, and it requires a majority to pass a law, a minimum of 91 votes.
While overturning Greene’s apparent loss does not affect control of the House, it does affect who represents voters in the nine counties affected by Greene’s district in the southwest part of the state.
“This oversight not only affected the numbers, it also changed who was running an election,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “This is unacceptable and we intend to find out exactly how this happened.”
The secretary of state’s office said the discrepancy was discovered when the number of registered voters was compared to the number of votes cast, showing there were about 388 more voters than were cast ballots. The discrepancy triggered a search for the missing memory card.
Another unresolved race could change the overall numbers.
Rep. Mike Cheokas, R-Americus, failed to win a majority in a three-way contest for his seat. With independents eliminated, the Cheokas now face the second-highest vote-getter, Democrat Ethan Wolfe, in a runoff.
If Cheokas loses, Democrats could have a two-vote cushion.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat, an initiative of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
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