Georgia secretary of state investigating county's late upload of votes that flips House seat

The Georgia secretary of state's office has opened an investigation into the late upload of hundreds of votes in one county that could impact one of the state's undetermined elections.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Seminole County uploaded several hundred votes after officials discovered a discrepancy in their post-election checks, changing the current unofficial outcome of one of the state House elections.

"Every vote matters, and in a close election, even a relatively small number of unreported ballots can change the outcome," Raffensperger said.

According to the agency, officials identified around 388 more votes recorded as checked in at polling places on Tuesday than the number of ballots the county reported had been cast. When the secretary of state's office notified county officials about the difference, authorities with the Seminole County Board of Elections discovered that a memory card had not been uploaded to its election management system.

Currently, the secretary of state's unofficial election totals show Democratic candidate Harry James with a slight lead over Republican incumbent Gerald E. Greene in state House District 154. With the inclusion of these new votes, officials say Greene now leads in that race by 262 votes.

"Georgia's election safeguards are designed to identify discrepancies, and that is exactly what these guardrails did," Raffensperger said. "Our office identified a significant discrepancy, alerted county officials, and uncovered a failure to properly upload election results. This oversight didn't just affect the numbers - it changed who was leading an election. That is unacceptable, and we intend to find out exactly how it happened."

The state agency says it will investigate whether proper procedures were followed, how the memory card was overlooked, and what measures need to be put in place to prevent similar incidents in the future.

County officials have until Monday to certify their results.