Ga. Secretary of State to conduct audit 2022 Senate runoff election to restore confidence in system

Richard Elliot
·2 min read
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Georgia’s Secretary of State will conduct a traditional audit of the 2022 U.S. Senate runoff election even though, by law, it doesn’t have to.

Georgia law mandates risk-limiting audits only for even-year general elections.

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Still, given the erosion of voter confidence in the election system over the past two years, State Elections Director Blake Evans thought it best to conduct a traditional audit to rebuild that confidence.

“Part of what we’re trying to do again is build that culture of audit,” Evans said during a Tuesday afternoon news conference. “We want to be completely transparent as to what we’re doing and let voters themselves make decisions about whether or not what we do improves their confidence in the process. We hope it does.”

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Staff members took turns rolling 20 ten-sided dice on Tuesday to generate a random 20-digit number that was then fed into a computer which will then tell 137 county elections offices which batches of ballots to audit.

It was nearly two years ago to the day that Former President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani and others testified before a state senate subcommittee and made wide-ranging allegations of massive voter fraud.

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None of the allegations proved true, and now Giuliani and others could face indictment in Fulton County for their part in possible criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.

But those allegations and others have eroded confidence in Georgia’s election system in the minds of some voters. The Secretary of State’s Office wants to restore that confidence.

Because the audit is not mandated by law, not all 159 Georgia counties are participating. But Evans was encouraged that 137 will.

“We want to improve confidence and enhance confidence in the results of the election,” Evans said.

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