A Seminole County, Georgia, memory card that was never uploaded on election night held enough votes to flip a state House race, and the new count is not final until the county certifies it.
Story Highlights
- A state check found about 388 more voters checked in on Election Day in Seminole County than ballots the county reported.
- County officials then found a memory card whose results had never been uploaded.
- With those votes added, Republican Rep. Gerald Greene went from 58 votes behind to 262 votes ahead.
- The results are still unofficial, and the county must certify them by Monday, November 9.
How a Routine Check Found the Missing Votes
On Friday, November 6, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said a routine post-election check had turned up a gap in Seminole County, a small county in the southwest corner of the state. About 388 more voters were recorded as checking in at the polls on Election Day than the number of ballots the county reported. The state alerted the county elections board. The board then found a memory card, the small data card that carries a voting machine’s results, that had never been uploaded into the county’s election system.
The card decided who was ahead in House District 154. After the Tuesday, November 3 election, the state’s unofficial count showed Democrat Harry James leading Greene by 58 votes. Once the card’s results were added on Friday, Greene led by 262. The state’s results page that night showed Greene with 10,193 votes and James with 9,932. Greene, of Cuthbert, has served in the House since 1982. He was first elected as a Democrat and switched to the Republican Party after the 2010 election.
“I’m in disbelief,” Greene said, according to reports. “I hope it sticks.” James could not be reached for comment. State Rep. Carolyn Hugley, the Columbus Democrat in line to become House speaker, said her office is “following up and looking into the matter.”
What Is Final and What Is Not
The new totals are unofficial, and the race has not been called. Seminole County has until Monday, November 9, to certify its results. Certifying means the county formally signs off on its final count, which then goes to the state.
Raffensperger has also opened an investigation. It will look at how the card was overlooked, whether required election steps were followed, and what changes are needed so it does not happen again. Raffensperger said the oversight “changed who was leading an election.” He added, “That is unacceptable, and we intend to find out exactly how it happened.” The county elections board was not available for comment on Friday afternoon.
What the Flip Means for Control of the House
Democrats flipped a string of Republican seats on November 3 and are set to take the Georgia House in January for the first time since 2005. The House has 180 seats, and 91 make a majority. If Greene’s lead holds, Democrats would have 92 seats, only one more than they need.
Two other close races could still move that number. Republican Rep. Mike Cheokas of Americus faces Democrat Ethan Wolfe in a runoff on Tuesday, December 1, after no one won a majority. In a Lawrenceville-area race, Republican Soo Hong trails Democrat Chris Luchey by 27 votes, a margin close enough to allow a recount.
Why the Check Matters for Every Vote
Raffensperger said the problem was caught because the system is built to catch it. “Georgia’s election safeguards are designed to identify discrepancies, and that is exactly what these guardrails did,” he said. “Every vote matters, and in a close election, even a relatively small number of unreported ballots can change the outcome.”
Georgia has seen this kind of miss before. During the 2020 presidential recount, Floyd County found about 2,600 votes that had been left out of its first count, and state officials blamed a memory card that was never uploaded. In Seminole County, the gap surfaced before certification, which is the point of comparing check-ins with ballots. For voters on both sides, the lesson is the same: the count is only as good as the checks behind it, and Monday’s certification is the next one.
Sources:
sos.ga.gov, ajc.com, capitol-beat.org, waff.com
