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Georgia Hand Tally of Presidential Vote Gets Underway

Associated Press

   ATLANTA - Election officials in Georgia's 159 counties started counting
   ballots Friday morning for a hand tally of the presidential race that
   stems from an audit required by state law.
   The law requires that one race be audited by hand to check that the
   machines counted the ballots accurately, not because of any suspected
   problems with the results.
   Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger chose to audit the presidential
   race and said the tight margin -- Democrat Joe Biden leads Republican
   President Donald Trump by 14,000 votes -- meant a full hand count was
   necessary.
   In Cobb County, in suburban Atlanta, several dozen two-person audit
   teams wearing face masks as a precaution against coronavirus sat at
   tables in a large room at a county event center in Marietta as they
   began counting absentee ballots. At each table, one auditor picked up a
   ballot read the candidate's name aloud and then passed it to the other
   auditor, who also said the name aloud before placing the ballot in a
   clearly marked tray corresponding to the candidate's name.
   As they worked, the room was quiet aside from the shuffling of papers
   and auditors saying, "Trump" or "Biden."
   A similar scene occurred in counties across the state as the count
   began.
   At the Chatham County board of elections annex, a big warehouse on the
   south side of Savannah, about 60 auditors wearing masks listened as a
   supervisor ran through how the process would work, then watched a
   training video before beginning the count a little after 10 a.m.
   At the Floyd County administration building in Rome, in north Georgia,
   pairs of masked auditors sitting at eight plastic folding tables were
   sworn in at 9 a.m. and the ballots arrived a few minutes later.
   Republican and Democratic monitors were also sworn in to watch the
   counting. The party monitors were allowed to circulate among the
   auditing stations while several other observers were kept back by a
   black plastic chain.

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