ATLANTA – A statewide audit of the Nov. 5 presidential election in Georgia found minor discrepancies but nothing that would alter Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the Peach State over Democrat Kamala Harris.
A hand count of randomly selected ballots in all 159 counties gave Trump 11 more votes than he received from the machine count after the polls closed on Election Night, while Harris received six fewer votes. Trump defeated Harris in Georgia by 184,259 votes on his way to recapturing the presidency, according to audit results released Wednesday.
“Georgia’s election systems are our nation’s best,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whose office oversees elections in Georgia. “This audit shows that our system works and that our county election officials conducted a secure, accurate election.”
The General Assembly passed legislation in 2019 requiring a post-election, pre-certification audit of election results following the introduction of voter-verified paper ballots as a backup to touch-screen voting machines.
In total, county election officials audited 442 batches of ballots. Of those 442 batches, 381 – or 86.1% – showed no deviation from the original candidate totals. Of the other 61 batches, all fell within an expected margin of error for a hand count.