ATLANTA — While many counties were done certifying results of the presidential election audit by the Wednesday night deadline, some still had to sort through discrepancies in their vote counts on Thursday.
Fulton County had to look through a few hundred votes for inconsistencies from its original count, while Gwinnett County was doing the same for a small number of votes.
Cobb County finalized its audit Thursday after finding a box of ballots that had not been entered into the State's system after doing the hand tally. It has since audited those as well.
Todd Edwards with the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) says these delays could come at a cost but are important in order to have accurate and transparent results.
"Smaller counties have less votes, thus less staff required," he explained. "The larger counties need to bring in more folks. It's not just for the recount ... there's also security costs with maintaining order at the recount locations as well as maintaining the integrity of the ballots 24 hours a day during the process."
Other associated costs include poll workers and temporary workers brought in to oversee the audit.
So how much are counties paying?
Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, spent more than $200,000 once it completed the audit Thursday.
Clayton County, which has about a quarter of Fulton County's population, spent about $70,000 over a 4-day period.
As for DeKalb County, it estimated the cost to be $180,000 but it finished faster than expected, so that number should change in the coming days.
"They've all done a great job," said Edwards. "I think things ran better for the General Election [...] They've had a rough time not only with the new voting technology but we've had the COVID-19 epidemic to deal with, social distancing, a huge influx in absentee ballots which takes a lot more administrative time and calls to process those."
Cobb County is relying on a $5.6 million grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTLC) to pay for any costs associated with the 2020 election cycle. That money could go towards everything from ballot dropboxes, hazard pay for employees, personal protective equipment (PPE) and they say also this audit.
Edwards, who is a lobbyist for the counties, is in charge of getting information from the Secretary of State's office to the counties. Through the ACCG, he is able to advise counties on budget issues.
He suggests counties keep track of their expenses in case the State is able to reimburse them later on.
"The cost of conducting this hand audit will fall on Georgia counties, however, I will note that we are encouraged that the Secretary of State, when he made this announcement, did note that he, his office and the General Assembly will look for funds," he said. "Whether it be through Help America Vote Act or the CARES Act and possibly reimburse counties when this is all over."