The future of Georgia’s elections process is being played out right now, in federal court. On Thursday, the Secretary of State’s office issued an official election bulletin stating that all counties must count absentee ballots that were previously rejected solely because of an error or omission in the date of birth on the absentee ballot oath envelope.
The order, sent to all county election superintendents and registrars across Georgia, stated that absentee ballots rejected only due to an error in the marked date of birth must be counted, unless the voter cast a subsequent absentee ballot or voted in person on Election Day. If a county’s vote totals change after the review, the Secretary of State has ordered that counties must re-certify the election results with updated totals and forward the new certification to the Secretary of State’s office.
This comes after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ campaign and Democratic Party lawmakers made the request in court Tuesday afternoon to have those ballots counted.
Those attorneys argued that such ballots should be counted statewide – and last night, U.S. District Judge Steven Jones agreed.
Democrat John Barrow and Republican Brad Raffensperger are the two candidates vying to become Georgia’s next Secretary of State.
Barrow said, if he is elected, he wants to see more attention to detail on how votes are counted statewide.
“The reason we are having these problems is because of the lack of reform and the lack of attention to these details,” Barrow said. “The fact is that we need to address them, and nothing has shined a light on that more than a real, high-stakes, close election.”
Raffensperger has voiced confidence in the state elections system, but there are changes he'd like to see.
“By the end of the day, Georgia will get it right. We have a solid Secretary of State’s office that has been well-run, for the last two people who have been there. Both were there for a long period of time,” Raffensperger said. “I think Secretary Kemp and I think Secretary Karen Handel did a great job and really built that platform that we know we have safe, secure elections.”
The Republican candidate told 11Alive that he would work to replace the state's aging voting machines by 2019, so they are in place for the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
In Wednesday night’s federal ruling, Judge Jones ordered the state not to certify results until it’s confirmed each county re-examined its rejected absentee ballots.
Interim Secretary of State Robyn Crittenden said each county has until 5 p.m. Friday to review ballots in question.