With another election looming, Fulton announces plans for presidential recount
The most-populated county in Georgia will begin its candidate-requested presidential ballot machine recount on Wednesday.
Fulton County officials announced their plans Tuesday, saying they will count inside the Georgia World Congress Center starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
President Donald Trump requested the recount over the weekend. The recount is not expected to change the result of the election, but state law allows Trump to ask for the recount because former Vice President Joe Biden’s margin of victory is less than a half percent.
Fulton — with its 528,000 ballots — will pause counting for Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday. The operation will pick back up Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“If needed, the recount will continue on Sunday,” according to a county news release,” from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
About 50 workers will use 13 scanners to tally, which is different from the state-requested hand recount earlier this month. The Republican-run state certified the election results Friday.
This comes as Fulton runs two early voting operations ahead of the Dec. 1 election.
During the recount, there will be an observation area for the public and the press. Each of the political parties recognized by Georgia Secretary of State for this recount — the Republican, Democrat and Libertarian parties — will be allowed two designated monitors per Secretary of State rules.
The news release said Fulton intends to livestream the recount process but provided no URL. The last recount was streamed on the county’s YouTube page.
About the Author
Ben Brasch is the reporter tasked with keeping Fulton County government accountable. The Florida native moved to Atlanta for a job with The AJC. If there's something important to you going on in Fulton, he wants to know about it. Help him better metro Atlanta by dropping a line, anonymously or otherwise.
