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ZEBULON - Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger held a press conference this morning that directed our registrar and those around the state on upcoming Runoffs and an audit to make a comparison between paper ballots and computer printouts. He also urged anyone who has seen illegal voting to report it.
He praised election directors and their staff from across the entire state for their hard work of making sure that all “legal votes” are counted. “Their job is hard,” he said. “They have executed their responsibilities, and they did their job.”
Raffensberger said that this is a process defined by law and that they will continue to follow the law and “count every legal vote.”
97 counties have sent in final numbers to date. The current margin is 14,111 votes between President Trump and Vice-President Biden.
“My office will continue to investigate each and every instance of illegal voting, double voting, felon voting, people voting out of state.” He said. “If you report it, we will investigate it. Every legal count will count. We will continue to follow and enforce the law.”
What Is the Next Step?
First, there two separate Runoff scheduled in the state of Georgia: the first on December 1 and the second on January 5. Under his powers under health emergency, he is moving the date of the December 1 Run Off Election to the same date as the January 5, 2021 election. It will save taxpayers millions of dollars as well as making for better administration and protecting the integrity of the election.
This will not affect the December 1 Runoff to fill the U.S. House seat for U.S. Rep. John Lewis. It will remain on December 1.
Then the next step in the current election will be getting in the final county certifications including risk limiting audit that will be a recount of the presidential race that will be an audit, recount, and recanvass all at once. “With the margin being so close, it will require a full by hand recount in each county.”
The ballots will be separated into a stack for each of the presidential candidates and manually counted against the numbers from the computer counts. This is a requirement that came with the new voting machines last year.
This will help build confidence in the election results, and he advised that his office will work with the counties to get this done in time for our state certification on November 20, 2020.
Raffensberger stressed that every single ballot will be counted. “Because we now have that verifiable paper ballot, for the first time in 18 years, we will have something to count instead of just pressing a button and getting the same answer. So we’ll be counting every single piece of paper. Every single ballot. Every single lawfully cast ballot.”
He also stressed that this process will be open and transparent.
What About Here at Home?
The election directors in each county will work to fulfill the requirements of this directive.
In Pike County, there will be state called mandatory training for the risk limiting audit at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.
UPDATE 11.12.20: Chief Registrar Lynn Vickers advised that the audit will begin tomorrow. The audit will be conducted on Friday, November 12, 2020 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. "We will have audit teams in our front area," said Vickers.
"Both parties will be here as part of the review panel and can observe too. My audit teams will consist of poll workers and (Election) board members," Vickers said.
What to Do If You’ve Seen Voter Fraud?
There are several ways to report voter fraud.
You can report it through the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office at sos.ga.gov/cgi-bin/EMailStopVoterFraud.asp .
You can also report fraud through the Defend Your Ballot Campaign with Trump/Pence at defendyourballot.formstack.com/forms/voter_fraud and the Georgia Election Incident Hotline: (470) 410-8793 or reportfraud@gagop.org.
And you can report fraud through Project Veritas at by email at veritastips@protonmail.com or phone at 914-653-3110. www.projectveritas.com/tip.