Georgia Officials to Begin Statewide ‘Risk-Limiting Audit’ to Ensure Accuracy of Votes

Georgia officials are conducting what has been described as a “risk-limiting audit” to ensure the accuracy of the votes ahead of a recount.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) has denied instances of widespread voter fraud in the state, but officials will proceed with an audit per state law beginning Wednesday.

“Raffensperger said he will select which races to audit, and then his staff will compare a certain number of paper ballots to the computer tallies,” WSB-TV reports.

This week, Cobb County election officials discovered 400 outstanding ballotsnot included in their original tally from last week’s election results, attributing the error to a skipped memory card containing results.

“We found it by checking the number of votes uploaded against what was documented on the forms by the poll workers,” Cobb County Elections & Registration Director Janine Eveler said. “Again, that’s why we audit everything.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the outstanding votes did not alter the outcomes of any races.

The statewide audit follows calls for Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, to step down over his handling of the election.

Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), both of whom are facing runoffs, called for his resignation in a letter on Monday, stating the management of elections has become an “embarrassment” for their state.

Raffensperger has dismissed their calls and vowed that his office would investigate allegations of fraud, although, like Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling, he doubted that any discoveries would alter the results of the election.

“My job is to follow Georgia law and see to it that all legal votes, and no illegal votes, are counted properly and accurately,” he said in a statement. “As Secretary of State, that is my duty, and I will continue to do my duty.”

Georgia Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), whom the Trump campaign tapped to lead the recount efforts in the Peach State, has since called on the secretary of state to announce a “full hand-count of every ballot cast in each and every county due to widespread allegations of voter irregularities, issues with voting machines, and poll watcher access”:

On Monday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp promised that Georgia’s final results “will include legally cast ballots – and ONLY legally cast ballots. Period”:

Joe Biden (D) led President Trump by roughly 14,100 votes as of Wednesday morning.