A missing memory card holding hundreds of Election Day ballots has flipped the outcome of a Georgia state House race — and launched a state investigation into how the votes went uncounted.
A post-election review in Seminole County found about 388 more voters had checked in at polling places on Election Day than the number of ballots reported as cast. When the Georgia Secretary of State's office flagged the discrepancy to the county Board of Elections, officials discovered that a memory card containing election results had never been uploaded into the county's election management system.
Once the votes on the card were counted, Republican incumbent Gerald Greene moved from trailing Democrat Harry James by 58 votes to leading by 262 votes in the race for House District 154, a southwest Georgia seat covering nine counties. The results remain unofficial pending certification.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office has opened an investigation into how the memory card was overlooked, whether required election procedures were followed, and what corrective measures are needed to keep it from happening again. The state said its routine canvassing safeguards caught the numerical mismatch between voter check-ins and reported ballots, and the release does not accuse any candidate, voter or election worker of fraud.
The reversal carries real stakes for the Georgia House. If the result stands, Democrats would begin the new legislative session with 92 seats in the 180-member chamber, a slimmer majority than they had expected. Seminole County has until Monday to certify its results.
