DeKalb County elections manager fired for errors found in ballot audit

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County fired an elections manager on Friday after a series of errors as the county ran a state-ordered audit of ballots cast in the presidential race.

A county statement said, “ It has come to our attention that a DeKalb VRE manager, who is now a former employee, failed to follow our established protocols and blatantly disregarded the required processes we utilize to account for and record all legal and verified ballots.”

[SPECIAL SECTION: Election 2020]

County elections officials said they found an additional 59 ballots that were omitted from the county’s final tally. They also said the fired employee is the same person who made a human error and forced a previous recertification.

DeKalb’s hand count audit of ballots showed a difference of 732 votes from their original count.

“We immediately notified the Georgia Secretary of State upon discovery of this error and look forward to officially certifying the November 3rd General Election results. The voters of DeKalb did their part in casting their ballots this election cycle and we refuse to allow the reckless acts of one irresponsible former employee to discredit this entire election and the votes of more than 373,000 DeKalb County residents,” county officials said.

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The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office says a previous vote tallying error discovered in DeKalb County was never entered into the official state-wide count after rumors circulated online Wednesday.

The chairman of the state’s Republican party, David Shafer, tweeted about what he said was a mistake a GOP observer witnessed in DeKalb County.

The observer filed an affidavit after witnessing what he said was an obviously incorrect tally, with only 13 votes in one batch for President Donald Trump compared to 10,000 for President-Elect Joe Biden.

Gabriel Sterling with the Secretary of State’s office dismissed Shafer’s claims outright on Wednesday afternoon, saying that the error was discovered early on and fixed before it ever entered into the official ballot count.

RAW VIDEO: Secretary of State says vote count is 'correct'