- The Washington Times - Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Tuesday that President Trump ended up netting about 800 additional votes after an audit of the state’s election results found about 2,600 ballots that weren’t counted the first time.

“They found a memory stick that hadn’t been uploaded and so that added about 800 votes for President Trump,” Mr. Raffensperger said on Fox News. “That’s why we do audits — [to] verify that every single ballot has been counted.”

He said the memory stick issue was a product of human error.

Georgia is in the process of undergoing an unprecedented hand recount of its election results.

Presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden won the state over Mr. Trump by a margin of about 14,000 votes, or 0.3 percentage points, according to unofficial results.

The race appears to be close enough for the losing candidate to ask for an additional recount after the current one, which is supposed to be finished this week.

Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, recently discussed signature matching issues for absentee ballots with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“His question really was about if ballots could be matched back to the envelope,” Mr. Raffensperger said. “I thought that he implied that he wanted us to audit the envelopes and then throw out ballots of counties who had the highest frequency error rate of signatures.”

Mr. Raffensperger said election officials are following state law.

Mr. Graham said the notion that he was suggesting that Mr. Raffensperger find a way to toss out legally cast ballots is “ridiculous.”

Some Republicans have called for the ouster of both Mr. Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a top Trump ally, over the state’s election results and issues.

• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.

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