Oops! @GaSecofState was just kidding about certifying the results of this massive politically motivated "recount/audit/re-tally/hand count."
He was finally forced to admit that he cannot use the expensive illicit process to change the vote count. bit.ly/CGGsosCount 1/
2/ We @CoalitionGoodGv have been warning since before the counting exercise began that it could not be used as a recount, and could not change the tallies if errors were found. @GaSecofState hid this information from 159 counties until yesterday, and forced this mess on them.
3/ We sent this letter to Fulton and other counties just after the counting exercise was announced. We've urged the press to demand answers.
It was obvious from the beginning that this was a political game and the counties would pay the price. bit.ly/CGGhandcount
4/ The press and the counties were told that the huge counting exercise would led to accurate new official totals....
(But it was a way to try to appease GOP demands for a hand count, not in the law.)
5/ A rule adopted by Raffensperger's St. Elec. Bd. required that RLAs start this year, and that he could make the sole decision on which race to audit.
After saying that he would pick an easy one that would have small sample, (also sketchy), he kowtowed to GOP.
6/ The lack of emperor's clothes on this bogus "recount" exercise was beginning to be better understood after @OSET issued this report.
7/ It is now better understood that Trump can request a discretionary recount, and/or wait until SOS certification on Friday and ask for a mandatory legal recount--not some made up counting exercise.
8/ Any real recount in GA would be by machine (although that is not necessarily great, it is the law), unless a court orders a manual recount.
A manual recount would be done very differently than this crazy counting exercise now being conducted.
9/ Legal manual recounts require multi-partisan teams to count--counters are approved by the political parties to protect their interests.
Batches of no more than 30 ballots are counted to provide control. (Some counties had 5,000+ batches this time counted by 2 people.)
10/ Legal manual recounts are very different than this made-up exercise by @GaSecofState. They are far more organized and controlled with multi-partisan checks and balances.
2 person counting teams are not permitted in a real manual recount. 3 is minimum.
11/ One question is how did this get this far with so much national attention on this "recount/re-tally/audit/handcount/all-in-one" exercise without people pushing back on why this extra-legal effort was taking place that could not change the official result?
13/ We call on @GaSecofState to reimburse the cost the counties incurred of this politically driven exercise that did not need to be a mess like this one is.
14/ If @GaSecofState wanted to have a hand-counted official legal recount, he merely needs to go to court and explain why a manual count is needed, and get a court order. If the SOS tells a court that hand count is necessary to get accurate result, no court would deny it.
15/ Then the counties would have the parties with a candidate on the ballot (Dems, GOP, Libertarian) nominate and approve the 3 member counting teams.
Controlled processes mandated by Election Code (not made up rules) would be enforced--like 30 ballot batches.
16/ If @GaSecofState wants to call this an "all in one" and a "recount triggered by the audit," why did he bypass all the legal requirements of a manual recount?
18/ And I have a question for the @GaRepublicans -- You have been complaining about access to the count (and you have some legit concerns about transparency), but if this was a recount, you could appoint a person as a counter at every table. Why didn't you? Why be silent?
19/ We @CoalitionGoodGv are non-partisan and just want a fair process and result. But we have to ask the @GaRepublicans and @GaSecofState why have you put the thousands citizens-- officials, staffers, audit board members, support teams, through this? #gapol
20/ You knew how to get a legal hand recount and didn't want to take the responsibilities associated with it.
So you shortcut and bastardized a PORTION of an audit exercise to meet your partisan goals at great expense to the counties and added more public health risk!
16.5/ If this thread is broken , it continues here--
21/ We wonder why @CarterCenter, @VerifiedVoting, @BrennanCenter have put their names on this arbitrary made up process where the public has been misled as to what the end result of this process would be.
1/ Lots of questions should be asked of @GaSecofState, and his GOP colleagues that just put the counties through an incredibly massive effort far from over....
-If you wanted a manual recount, why not seek a court order to get one (which is the law)?
2/ --If GOP wanted more representation in the counting process, why not have a legally compliant manual recount where one member was GOP at each counting table?
--If you wanted to have a manual count control official results, why didn't you conduct a hand recount?
3/ Since you know that you have to report official recount numbers by precinct, why did you use @voting_works non-transparent software Arlo which does not record precincts?
Why did you not have the counters record precinct counts?
1/ GA press and voters--
If you want to do your own ballot count to compare to the hand count result--insist that the counties make the scan images from the original election public. Here's what they look like.
Crowdsource the counting effort.
2/ They are clearly public records under GA law.
There is nothing "secret" about them. The only "names" on the ballots are candidate names.
3/ Hey, @AJC, remember when the @StarTribune published online scans of all the ballots in the Franken-Coleman recount? Please do that before the final state certification puts them under seal.
1/ Observed the hand count as a Monitor today in Gwinnett and DeKalb.
I have so many super-crazy stories to tell, I don't know where to start with this small window of time I have. I'll start with a few absurd ones and add later.
2/ Top voting system cybersecurity expert @HarriHursti was in the public/press area at DeKalb taking photos of the counting process. DeKalb officials accompanied by these armed policemen approached him and told that that zoom lens were not permitted!
Show the rule, we said....
3/ When challenged to show us the rule, Erica Hamilton claimed that it was in the SOS rules. Yet when we asked to read them, it was of course not there. She made it up, and said she had to call attorneys to clarify that zoom lens were not allowed. How many reporters used zooms?
GA HAND COUNT
MEDIA--
This recount seems completely outside the law. This could cost millions and not even result in a legal count.
The SOS orders do not meet the legal requirements of either a machine or hand recount. See letter to Fulton. bit.ly/CGGhandcount 1/
2/ And this hand count does not comply with audit law either. The counties cannot adjust the tallies based on an "audit."
This is a very expensive fool's errand. And the SOS should stop kowtowing to partisan interest and follow the law.
3/ The counties should get an opinion from the Attorney General on whether they should obey these ridiculous made up orders from the SOS that do not comply with law.
1/ For people new to the problematic issues surrounding Georgia's new voting system--please study Judge Totenberg's recent ruling describing these problems. bit.ly/CGGOrderOct
It will be hard for you to understand why GA leaders chose this system. #GAPols
2/ This mess is directly attributable to @GaSecofState and GA lawmakers insisting on having an un-auditable system with a very high price tag. We @CoalitionGoodGv warned of all of these problems at the time, as did the leading voting system computer scientists.
3/ We have fought this voting system in Court and will continue to do so. The current fix the state is in is a conscience choice of state officials, and your county boards of election chose to keep it when they could have ditched it.
Reporters and media outlets interested in GA's vote count tonight--Time to quit tolerating Gwinnett Cty Bd of Elections's withholding at least 5,000 counted ballots. They have the vote count secreted away and won't release because they "don't want to confuse voters!"
See thread
2/ This is irresponsible but also illegal. Time for media to step up and threaten legal action early tomorrow morning if Director Kristi Royston doesn't release the tallies immediately.
Here is the law--
3/ Gwinnett Bd. is trying to move certification date up to Monday (from next Friday deadline) and assure that candidates have no time to review results before certification--robbing the candidates of a chance for a discretionary recount.
Explained here--