The Daily Fuckup

Georgia’s 2020 presidential result did not rest on a single check. State officials ran a sequence of reviews: a machine audit in mid-November, a statewide hand audit announced Nov. 19, 2020, a recertification on Dec. 7 after recounts, and a later signature audit in late December. Each step left the same answer in place. The votes cast for president in Georgia stayed with Joe Biden. ([sos.ga.gov](https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/news/historic-first-statewide-audit-paper-ballots-upholds-result-presidential-race))

The first big test came with Georgia’s statewide risk-limiting audit, announced Nov. 19, 2020. The Secretary of State’s office said the hand tally of paper ballots confirmed the original machine count and upheld the presidential race result. A separate machine audit had already found no evidence that votes were changed or that voting machines were tampered with. ([sos.ga.gov](https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/news/historic-first-statewide-audit-paper-ballots-upholds-result-presidential-race))

Next came the formal recertification. On Dec. 7, 2020, Raffensperger said Georgia had recertified the election after the hand audit and a Trump campaign-requested recount both matched the original outcome. That was the state’s official bottom line: the count held. ([sos.ga.gov](https://sos.ga.gov/news/secretary-state-certifies-election-kraken-case-dismissed))

Then Georgia checked absentee ballot signatures in Cobb County. On Dec. 29, 2020, the Secretary of State’s office said the sampled audit found no fraudulent absentee ballots there and reported a 99.99% signature-match accuracy rate for the county review. The finding was limited to that county audit, but it still pointed the same way as the earlier checks: no evidence that the presidential outcome had been flipped. ([sos.ga.gov](https://sos.ga.gov/news/3rd-strike-against-voter-fraud-claims-means-theyre-out-after-signature-audit-finds-no-fraud))

The election-fraud claim did not disappear, but the evidence kept running over it. In later litigation tied to Georgia’s fake-elector scheme, lawyers for three Republicans said their clients were not false electors at all, but a supposed contingent slate that would matter only if the election result were overturned. Prosecutors said the group participated in a plan built to undermine the lawful transfer of power after Biden won the state. Whatever label the defendants wanted, the underlying Georgia result had already been audited, recounted and recertified. ([sos.ga.gov](https://sos.ga.gov/news/secretary-state-certifies-election-kraken-case-dismissed))