Georgia ballot audit finds 23 discrepancies out of more than 1.1 million ballots, Secretary of State says
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Thursday that a statewide ballot image audit of the June 16 runoff election confirmed the outcomes of all 91 contests that advanced to runoffs and found just 23 discrepancies among more than 1.1 million ballots cast.
According to the Secretary of State's Office, election officials audited all 1,111,856 ballot images from the runoff election. The audit detected 23 discrepancies, resulting in an overall accuracy rate of 99.9979%, officials said.
State officials said every discrepancy occurred on ballots that were marked by hand. By comparison, none of the 1,079,408 ballots cast using ballot-marking devices showed discrepancies during the audit. The office said machine-marked ballots were 100% accurate, while hand-marked ballots had an accuracy rate of 99.93%.
The ballot image audit was conducted separately from the state's previously announced risk-limiting audit. Officials said both audits confirmed the certified results of the June runoff election.
The Secretary of State's Office also projected what the findings could mean during a higher-turnout election year. Applying the same discrepancy rate to a presidential election with an estimated 5 million ballots cast would result in roughly 3,500 discrepancies, according to the office.
Raffensperger said the state will continue auditing every election as part of its election security procedures.
"We run elections with nearly perfect accuracy, and we will never stop reminding the public their machines are accurate, their counts are accurate, and that elections in Georgia are accurate," he said.
Georgia election officials highlighted the state's broader election system, noting it includes automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting and no-excuse absentee voting.
The Secretary of State's Office also cited national rankings recognizing Georgia's election administration and accessibility.
