This page illustrates all the information related to the risk-limiting audits (RLA) conducted in Georgia before and after the 2020 General Election. The links to the information are provided for users to look at the batch counts, and recounts, of votes and with these, you can recount them yourself. Also found on this page are public notices and costs of recounts, as well as the procedure and regulations related to those processes. Lastly, you can find the security camera footage of the Georgia Counts, and recounts, on the Secretary of State's Vimeo channel. If you suspect something nefarious was going on, you can take a look for yourself on the video footage.
See a term you don't understand? Check out the LibGuide's Glossary to define terms and put them into context.
A risk-limiting audit (RLA) is a process in which there is a hand recount of all ballots to confirm the machine tallied counts of ballots. After the 2020 General Election, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordered a full RLA of the presidential election. This is because the margin of victory, in favor of Joe Biden, was very small, and to protect the election integrity, and public perception of the election integrity, a statewide RLA was ordered and carried out.
According to a 2012 study conducted by Rice University, the human error is approximately 2% when ballots are counted by hand. This illustrates the point on why multiple methods of counting are beneficial to get the most accurate count. The highest estimated human error percentage for the 2020 election recounts was 0.73%. This translates to fewer than a change of +/- 10 ballots for the entire recount.*
*Reported from the 2020 General Election Risk-Limiting Audit webpage published by the Office of the Secretary of State.
While it would be a long and tedious process, you can essentially conduct your own recount if you really wanted to. All of the ballot batch counts are public information and can be found on the Georgia Secretary of State website. The ballot batches are divided by county and then by batch number. An example of the batch results is displayed below. It is page 1 of an Audit Batch Sheet from Muscogee County, file name Muscogee\20201117170031333. All counties can be found on the 2020 General Election RLA Website page, published by the office of the Georgia Secretary of State.
Following the November 2020 General Election, the Secretary of State selected the presidential contest for a statewide risk-limiting audit ("RLA"). Due to the tight margin of the race and the principles of risk-limiting audits, this audit was a full manual tally of all votes cast. The audit confirmed that the original machine count accurately portrayed the winner of the election.
The differential of the audit results from the original machine-counted results was well within the expected margin of human error that occurs when hand-counting ballots. A 2012 study by Rice University and Clemson University found that “hand counting of votes in postelection audit or recount procedures can result in error rates of up to 2 percent.” In Georgia’s recount, the highest error rate in any county recount was 0.73%. Most counties found no change in their final tally. The majority of the remaining counties had changes of fewer than ten ballots.
Risk Limiting Audit Summary Report (PDF)
November 19th Audit News Release
RLA County Summary Report (PDF) | (Excel)
Detailed Audit Report with Results from all Batch Sheets (Excel)
Note: As you are reviewing batch-level results, you may notice that Gwinnett County has a disproportionately high number of blank ballots. This is because some voters received two-page ballots, and the second page was considered a blank ballot since it did not have the presidential contest.
Following the conclusion of the statewide audit, our office collected batch sheets from the individual counties. In total, the audit included 41,881 batches. Click on the name of a county below to download its batch sheets.
Please note that we have redacted signatures from these documents. Click here to see an example of an original batch sheet.
*Text is taken directly from the Secretary of State's website - 2020 GENERAL ELECTION RISK-LIMITING AUDIT