As anxious Georgia voters and candidates await the final tallies on Tuesday’s election, they might not want to hear this: In some races, the initial count will be followed by a detailed recount.
LATEST UPDATES: Georgia launches statewide hand recount of Biden-Trump votes
When is there a recount, and how does it work?
The recount announced for the Georgia presidential election is different from the normal recount procedure, because the recount is also an audit. We are learning more details about how that will work.
For regular recounts, however, Georgia law gives the losing candidate the right to a recount if the margin of defeat is within half of a percent of the total vote. By law, the request for a recount must come within two days following the certification of the vote. After the election, results are unofficial until formally accepted or certified. The results would be recertified if a recount found a discrepancy.
Recounts may also be ordered at the discretion of the election superintendent, regardless of the margin. Discretionary recounts can be held any time before certification.
County election officials must certify elections 10 days after Election Day, by Nov. 13. The secretary of state certifies elections by Nov. 20.
With Georgia’s new election machines, which include a touchscreen computer that also prints a paper ballot for each voter, a recount is done by rescanning the paper ballots.
The original vote is recorded after a voter makes selections on the touchscreen. The ballot is printed when the voter clicks a button on the screen, creating a paper record of the the voter’s choices, along with a computer-readable code that can be scanned. The voter then takes the paper ballot to a scanning machine, inserts the paper, and the vote is scanned and stored electronically. The paper printout is also stored.
The recount is similar. Recounts are done by reinserting all the paper ballots from a particular election into optical scanning machines to be counted again. They are not counted by hand.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said officials are prepared for possible recount requests.
“If a race is within a half a percent, it is your right as the candidate" to ask for a recount, he said at news conference on Wednesday.
Which races lead to recounts will become clearer in coming days, he said. Requests for recounts of state and federal offices in Georgia go to the secretary of state. City or county recount requests go to the local election officials.
“We’ll just wait until we get every ballot counted, and that’s why it’s important to follow through the process,” Raffensperger said.
Until 2019, a recount could be requested if the difference in the top two candidates was 1% or less. The percentage was cut in half in 2019 with the passage of House Bill 316, the same bill that called for Georgia to replace its voting system.
An audit of a statewide race is planned this election. During the audit, election officials will review the printed text on ballots rather than rescanning them. Raffensperger hasn’t announced which race will be audited.
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