The public’s faith in America’s electoral processes has suffered another hit, with a report from a Democratic primary in Georgia finding that a manual count of ballots was “thousands” different from the results produced by voting machines.
The audit has raised fresh concerns about election integrity after it emerged that the vote count was severely inaccurate.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, DeKalb County School Board member Marshall Orson, who is running for county commission, petitioned the local election board not to certify results as scheduled on Thursday due to “many mistakes” in the local contest.
In a letter to the board, he demanded an “independent inquiry” as well as a formal recount of the election.
Here’s what Orson wrote:
“There is no rational basis for believing that there are not continuing issues with the results and the results should not be certified with the continuing existence of multiple substantive issues and concerns. Doing so would pose a substantial risk not only to the confidence the public will have in the overall election results from this race but could extend to the entire primary as well as the general election.”
Initial results showed Orson winning District 2, with Lauren Alexander coming in second and Michelle Long Spears coming in third, forcing a runoff between Orson and Alexander.
However, Spears noted that the machine results suggested she received no votes in a number of precincts.
Late this month, the secretary of state’s office admitted to making many programming errors in the ballot technology that influenced the final tally.
A re-scan of the ballots was attempted in District 2, but it was finally decided to undertake a hand count, which ended after midnight on Memorial Day.
The results of a hand count were released Wednesday evening, showing that Spears, the last-place contender, is now in the first place and will face Alexander in a runoff election on June 21. Meanwhile, former first-place finisher Orson was relegated to third place.
The report says the changes were significant, with Spears receiving 2,600 votes in a county race and Orson losing 1,600.
The inconsistencies that are emerging only contribute to the concern that the 2020 presidential election was manipulated.
Sources: Conservativebrief, Freerepublic, Republicbrief