FLOYD COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office says Floyd County missed 2,600 ballots during its initial count on election day.
The votes were discovered during the hand recount that is currently happening in every county across the state. Those ballots changed the margin in the state by about 800 votes in the President’s favor, according to Gabriel Sterling from the Secretary of State’s office. That change still leaves Biden in the lead by more than 13,000 votes.
Sterling says they are now calling for the elections director in the county to step down.
[SPECIAL SECTION: Election 2020]
“The secretary, since this was such an amazing blunder and they had issues in August, would like to see that elections director in Floyd County step down from his position,” Sterling said during a news conference Monday evening.
Here is the unofficial breakdown of the ballots that weren’t originally uploaded I Floyd. 1,643 votes for Pres. Trump, 865 for former VP Biden and 16 for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen. That is +778 for President Trump that will be reflected in the certified result. #gapol
— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) November 17, 2020
Sterling says the votes are from an early vote box and likely were missed by human error, in which the card with those ballots was not put through.
[RELATED: Here’s where Georgia counties stand on their hand recount of the presidential election]
He says they now have an investigator looking into what happened and why.
“It is the only county where we’ve had an issue like this,” Sterling said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s not an equipment issue. It’s a person not executing their job properly ... This is the kind of situation that requires I think a change at the top of their management.”
Channel 2 Action News Political Analyst Bill Crane said that’s a problem that could grow even bigger.
“I think it gives fuel to the president and his campaign that may request a full second recount under the law in Georgia, if they can point to or demonstrate irregularities or the potential for fraud,” Crane said.
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Sterling said the math doesn’t add up in the president’s favor.
“Nothing is making us see any substantial change in the outcome,” Sterling said.
Wednesday is the deadline for 159 counties to report their numbers.
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