Claims on social media assert that during the Georgia US presidential recount, 2,600 ballots had been missed from the official tally due to human error, of which 800 were for Trump and 1,800 for Biden.
Had this claim been true, it would have further increased Biden’s win over President Trump in the state. However the claim was the result of Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s remarks being misunderstood during a recent television interview.
In an interview with CNN, Raffensperger ambiguously stated –
Today in Floyd County we found about nearly 3000 votes, about 800 plus for President Trump.
Interviewer Wolf Blitzer then followed up, but again ambiguously, stating –
Those uncounted ballots of Floyd County, what about 2,600 we’re told, and about 800 as you pointed out were for President Trump.
These claims were inevitably misinterpreted by many viewers, who assumed that if 2,600 votes had not been added to the official tally for Georgia, and 800 were for President Trump, then approximately 1,800 must had been for Biden.
However this is not the case. What wasn’t clearly pointed out during the interview was that out of the 2,600 missed votes, Trump actually had an 800 net gain, not 800 votes.
While not explicitly stated, this would mean out of the approximately 2,600 ballots, 1,700 would have been for Trump and around 900 for Biden. As such, Trump would have gained about 800 votes on Biden when compared to the original count. This was more accurately stated by Gabriel Sterling, who works for the Georgia’s Secretary of State’s office who has also stated that they have asked for the resignation of the county election director as a result of the error.
However, as has been acknowledged by the George Secretary of State, Biden is leading by over 14,000 votes, so the 800 gain Trump has made on Biden during the recount would thus far not affect the outcome of the projected winner for the state.