Columbia County election workers were re-scanning thousands of ballots Wednesday after a worker accidentally “zeroed out” a vote total, Elections Director Nancy Gay said.
“Instead of printing the total, they zeroed it out,” she said. “On an advance voting site tabulator, at that.”
The mixup occurred on a tabulator used at an early voting site, the Euchee Creek Library, she said. The tabulator, which is the scanning device that reads a voter’s choices from the printed paper ballot, Gay said.
The issue set the county back “a couple hours” Tuesday and likely contributed to Columbia being among the last counties in the state to upload results to the Georgia Secretary of State Tuesday, she said.
“At the end of the day, the important part is to focus on the accuracy of the vote totals,” she said.
The incident also prompted her office to chose to re-scan all ballots from the site Wednesday, Gay said.
“We’re in the process of re-scanning all of Euchee Creek’s just to make sure the numbers are good,” she said.
Also slowing things down Tuesday was another tabulator that jammed and wouldn’t clear, Gay said. “It wouldn’t resume working, so we also had to scan all their ballots too.”
Both parties had observers in place Tuesday and Wednesday, when several were gathered at the tabulation room window. Two played chess as they watched.
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Overall turnout in Columbia County exceeded the state with some 62.57% of registered voters casting ballots. At two polling places – Savannah Rapids Pavilion and Stevens Creek Church – turnout exceeded 76%.
The suburban county favored GOP senate candidate Herschel Walker by 62.32% versus Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who received 35.73% there. Libertarian Chase Oliver, who sent Walker and Warnock into the likely runoff, had 1.95% support.
The county favored Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who won reelection Tuesday, by 67.22% over Democrat Stacey Abrams, who had 31.99%.
By comparison, Richmond County had an uneventful night, with turnout at 51.74%.
‘It was a very smooth, and I hate to say uneventful day, but that’s probably a good thing,” said Richmond County Board of Elections Executive Director Travis Doss.
The office received the standard phone calls from voters unsure of their polling places. An outside group questioned the presence of a food truck at Diamond Lakes Regional Park where voters vote at the Robert Howard Community Center, he said. Senate Bill 202, which banned the distribution of food or drinks in voting lines. did not apply because the truck was too far away.
“The only thing I can say is it needs to be outside of the 150 feet,” Doss said. The activities are legal 150 feet away from the voting site. “It’s the decision of the property owner.”
Both offices were already busying themselves with preparations for certifying vote totals, which the state requires by Nov. 15. Logic and accuracy testing starts next week as well, and the annual statewide audit performed after each general election, to take place Nov. 17.
In addition, Richmond County is prepping for the Dec. 20 special primary election to replace Rep. Henry “Wayne” Howard, who died in office Oct. 13. Advance voting in that election starts Nov. 28, Doss said.
Along with the statewide runoff for U.S. Senate, Richmond County has a runoff Dec. 6 for the District 2 school board seat between incumbent Charlie Hannah and pastor Larry Fryer. Early voting in that contest begins Nov. 28 as well, Doss said.
Susan McCord is a staff writer with The Augusta Press. Reach her at susan@theaugustapress.com
