ATLANTA — Below is an archive of our blog from Nov. 16
A historic audit of Georgia’s election continues after it launched on Friday. It’s a hand retally of the state’s nearly 5 million ballots cast in the general election on Nov. 3. It’s the largest audit in the country’s history to be conducted by hand.
This is all in an effort to validate the close results in the presidential race. In Georgia, President-elect Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by less than 0.5%.
NBC projected Friday that Biden is the apparent winner in Georgia. The Associated Press has not called the race yet.
Some counties are providing live video streams of their retally process.
The audit is not a recount. A recount can happen after the state certifies their election results and must be requested by the candidate. That’s why it’s being called a retally or hand count.
Throughout the day, we’ll update this blog with new information from the counties as they continue the tally along with other election updates.
8:30 p.m. | Gabriel Sterling with the Secretary of State's Office tweeted the unofficial breakdown of those 2,600 previously uncounted ballots from Floyd County that were discovered during the election audit.
- President Trump: 1,643 votes
- Joe Biden: 865 votes
- Jo Jorgensen: 16 votes
That measures out to a net gain of 778 votes for President Trump. Joe Biden still leads the president by more than 13,000 votes.
7:00 p.m. | Clayton County said it is moving the location of where it will conduct its hand re-tally of votes in order to have the appropriate social distancing.
As of this hour, the county said it has re-tallied at least 94,000 ballots. Officials said they expect to meet the Nov. 18 deadline.
6:35 p.m. | Here's is Floyd County's statement on the matter:
"I can confirm that approximately and additional 2600 ballots were counted during the hand count. It is believed that the issue was with a faulty scanner, but that is still under investigation. We don't have a breakdown on those ballots at this time that were discovered during the process of hand-counting.
The Floyd County Board of Elections is thankful for the opportunity to perform this hand recount so that we can ensure that all of our citizens votes count." - Dr. Melanie Conrad, Floyd County Board of Elections
6:20 p.m. | 11Alive's political analyst Mike Hassinger had this to add on the latest developments: “This is exactly what a recount/risk-limiting audit is designed to find."
6:05 p.m. | Here's a more condensed explanation of what happened - and how the uncounted ballots were discovered - from Gabriel Sterling with the Secretary of State's Office:
Below were the previous results for Floyd County, Georgia, certified by the county before an uncounted memory card with the 2,600 ballots were discovered.
The Secretary of State's Office estimated there was a roughly 800-vote net gain for President Trump after the 2,600 ballots were discovered.
5:15 p.m. | The Secretary of State's Office is holding a press conference after 2,600 ballots were found in Floyd County that had not been scanned on election night.
Click to read the full story.
Re-watch the press conference below.
1:40 p.m. | Democratic nominee Jon Ossoff said he agreed to participate in six debates with Sen. David Perdue, including one with 11Alive News. However, Perdue's camp tells us he will not debate Ossoff ahead of the January runoff.
8:33 a.m. | President Donald Trump took to Twitter to endorse Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
"I strongly stand with Kelly & David. They are both great and MUST WIN!," the President said.
8 a.m. | People are checking in at the Gwinnett Co. elections office. Officials say they are nearly done (not specific about how many ballots are left to retally). Observers (public) and monitors (affiliated with the party) are on hand to eye the process.
5 a.m. | Cobb County is nearing completion of its re-tally. "No issues or anomalies have been discovered."
Things to note from Sunday night
- Republicans commit at least $20 million, 600 staffers in Georgia Senate runoff races. The RNC is pulling out all the stops and committing at least $20 million and more than 600 staffers to Georgia.
- DeKalb County has finished its hand retally of the votes, Erik Burton confirmed to 11Alive.
- Fulton County said it completed the hand count of the 528,000 ballots cast during the Nov. 3 General Election, representing the vast majority of the Risk Limiting Audit process.