Joe Biden’s lead in Georgia could endure a significant shake-up with a reporting issue on Friday in one county.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement on Saturday evening that officials have been dispatched to State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. However, he did not describe what the issue was, nor did he say how many ballots may be affected.
“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 in a Facebook post. “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, the chief investigative reporter for The Reveal on 11Alive, a local NBC affiliate, said in a tweet that the development “*may* significantly affect the current Biden lead in Georgia.”
#BREAKING development that *may* significantly affect the current Biden lead in Georgia. “Fulton County has discovered an issue involving reporting from their work on Friday.”@11AliveNews we don’t know how many ballots are in question, or which way they would change the count. pic.twitter.com/PAL9HmIpqd
— Brendan Keefe (@BrendanKeefe) November 7, 2020
In a statement, Fulton County said officials believe some ballots were “not captured” in Friday night’s results, and “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 also said Friday night’s upload will be “pulled and replaced” with a new one from Saturday.
We just received this statement from Fulton County which explains what’s going on here at State Farm Arena tonight. The county believes some ballots were “not captured” in last night’s results. So, those are now being rescanned. pic.twitter.com/op13N3MHBf
— Justin Wilfon (@JustinWilfonWSB) November 8, 2020
Richard Barron, the Fulton County elections director, talked to reporters before midnight and said the 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.
Hours earlier, Fulton County, the most populous in the state, reported that all absentee, military and overseas provisional, early votes, and Election Day votes were reflected on their website, which showed a significant lead for Biden in the Democratic stronghold.
President Trump and his allies have complained of irregularities in vote counts in several states and argue that the contest is not over with lawsuits and recounts in play. Biden was declared the winner of the presidential contest on Saturday after news outlets projected him to become the winner in Pennsylvania and Nevada, putting him over the 270 Electoral College vote threshold needed to secure the presidency.
Biden leads Trump by a razor-thin margin in Georgia, less than 10,000 votes with 99% reported, according to the Associated Press, setting the stage for a recount. The two U.S. Senate races in the Peach State are also too close to call and appear to be headed to runoffs with control of the upper chamber at stake.
Fulton County has been a source of national interest over the past few days, with ballots still being counted on Election Day and beyond.
A water pipe burst at the State Farm Arena on Tuesday, delaying the processing operations for absentee-by-mail by four hours. No ballots were affected, according to county officials.
On Wednesday, Georgia’s Republican Party raised concerns about the integrity of the vote. “Fulton County told our observers last night to go home because they were closing up and then continued to count ballots in secret,” David Shafer, the chairman of the state GOP, claimed.
Sixteen electoral votes are at stake in Georgia, a state that has not been won by a Democratic presidential nominee since Bill Clinton did it in 1992.
