Did Bibb County get passing grade in GA official’s elections test? What sec. of state says

Georgia’s top elections officials gave Bibb County good marks when they reviewed the security and integrity of Macon’s vote-counting Tuesday.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his office showed up to the Bibb County Board of Elections office to do the test. Bibb was one of only 15 counties in the state to undergo this security screening.

“We’re … really just doing verifications of the machines, verifying that they’re recording all the votes accurately, that the EMS (emergency management system) county election server has not been messed with,” Raffensperger said.

As Georgia’s secretary of state, Raffensperger’s office secures “fair and responsible” election results, according to the SOS website. Raffensperger was thrust into the national spotlight in the wake of the 2020 election after a phone call between him and former President Donald Trump surfaced, in which Trump pressured the secretary to find around 11,000 more votes to secure victory in the 2020 presidential election.

The secretary denied his request, and the call was used as evidence in Trump’s indictment on felony charges to overturn the election.

Chris Bellew, senior elections system specialist, ran the screening that checked if its ballot-counter machines will present accurate total votes in November’s presidential election.

These screenings use the results of the most recent county election – the primary runoffs in Bibb’s case – to perform a mock trial of what it would look like to count the total ballots on election night.

“The SOS has a copy of all of the county’s election projects, what they use to form the election,” Bellew said. “We made a test deck out of our (SOS) equipment, so now … we’ve repeated the process on all of the county’s equipment so we can compare what we have in our controlled offices versus what they have here.”

Bibb passed the exam, Bellew said.

He explained the tests always show accurate total votes, but they’re performed as a precaution before every election.

“I personally am confident in the results of these tests,” Bellew said.

In a close race though, the SOS doesn’t only rely on the machines.

“We can run through the scanners again. We can also 100% hand recount,” Raffensperger said. “We can do that for any race that’s gotten that close.”

Robert Sinners, the secretary of state’s communications director, said the counties were “randomly selected,” but “larger counties were certainly on the list.”

Three counties were screened so far including Chatham and Cobb. They each had voter challenges in recent months.

Sinners did not disclose which other counties will undergo the inspection to ensure each test is raw and unmanipulated. The SOS office usually notifies county elections boards when they plan to inspect their machines about 30 minutes before arriving. However, if they anticipate press coverage, such as in Bibb, local officials are informed a few days in advance.

Local voters and advocacy groups accused the county of suppressing voters during the May primary after several people received and submitted ballots that did not belong to their districts. The election was still certified, and Elections Supervisor Tom Gillon admitted the issue would not be fixed in time for the runoffs.

Several ballot tabulators, which count the votes in each race, malfunctioned in Bibb at the end of the May 21 primary election. Gillon expected to finalize the results shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m., but they were not confirmed until the next day due to an issue with faulty memory cards.

“There was kind of this oppositional nature of the cop versus the speeder, and really what we’re going for is partnership,” Sinners said. “Elections officials are trying to do a good job. They’re trustworthy people.”

This story was originally published July 31, 2024 at 12:24 PM.