'That Is Unacceptable:' Georgia Finds 388 Uncounted Votes That Could Cut Democrats' House Majority to One Seat

A memory card that was never uploaded has flipped a tight Georgia state House race and could shrink the Democrats' newly won majority in the chamber.

Roughly 388 Election Day ballots in Seminole County went uncounted until a state check caught the gap. The newly uploaded votes put Republican Gerald Greene ahead in District 154 in unofficial results.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called the error 'unacceptable' and opened an investigation.

A Memory Card Left Behind

Raffensperger's office found that about 388 more voters checked in at Seminole County polling places on Tuesday 3 November than the county reported as having cast ballots, the secretary of state announced.

Seminole County, a small rural county in the south-west corner of Georgia, borders both Florida and Alabama. When the state alerted county officials, the Seminole County Board of Elections discovered that a memory card had not been uploaded to its election management system, CBS News Atlanta reported.

The newly uploaded results changed the race. Before it, Democratic challenger Harry James led Greene, the Republican incumbent, by 58 votes in State House District 154. Afterwards, Greene led by 262 votes in unofficial results, WCTV reported.

'That Is Unacceptable'

Raffensperger said the state's checks had worked as designed. 'Georgia's election safeguards are designed to identify discrepancies,' he said. 'Every vote matters, and in a close election, even a relatively small number of unreported ballots can change the outcome.'

He was blunt about the county's failure. 'This oversight didn't just affect the numbers, it changed who was leading an election,' he said. 'That is unacceptable, and we intend to find out exactly how it happened.'

His office will examine whether proper procedures were followed, how the card was overlooked and what changes are needed to prevent a repeat. The county has until Monday 9 November to certify its results. WCTV said no one from the Seminole County Board of Elections was available to comment on Friday.

The episode lands in a state where vote counting has faced intense scrutiny since 2020. After that election, Raffensperger, a Republican, refused Donald Trump's demand in a recorded phone call to 'find' 11,780 votes. This time, the corrected count puts a Republican candidate back in front.

What It Means For The Majority

The stakes go beyond one district. Democrats appear to have won control of the Georgia House of Representatives for the first time since Republicans took the chamber in 2005, The Georgia Sun reported. They need 91 of the 180 seats.

On Wednesday, before the Seminole County discovery, the Sun projected a 93 to 87 Democratic chamber based on leads in uncalled races, with District 154 among the seats Democrats were leading.

If Greene's lead stands, that projection falls to 92 seats for Democrats, leaving them just one seat above the 91 needed for control. Other races remain razor-thin. In District 103, Democrat Chris Luchey led Republican Soo Hong by 27 votes, according to the Sun.

Before Tuesday, Republicans held 99 seats to the Democrats' 81. The final balance will not be clear until counties certify their results, and close races could still go to recounts.

Raffensperger's office will certify the statewide results by 20 November, the deadline under Georgia law. Under the same law, a losing candidate can request a recount if the margin is 0.5 per cent or less of the votes cast.