Georgia secretary of state says voting machine audit is complete, no sign of foul play

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) on Tuesday said that an audit of the state’s voting machines has been completed and has found no signs of foul play.

The audit comes as Raffensperger is overseeing a hand-recount of ballots cast in the Nov. 3 elections while under pressure from a number of Republicans following President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state.

Georgia is also conducting a risk-limiting audit of paper ballots before certifying its election results.

President Trump has refused to concede the election to Biden while citing, without providing evidence, massive voter fraud in a number of states, including Georgia.

Last week, Dominion Voting Systems, which is used throughout the state of Georgia, hit back at the president’s baseless claim that it had removed 2.7 million Trump votes from its machines. 

Pro V&V, a U.S. Elections Assistance Commission-certified testing laboratory, conducted an audit of a random sample of Dominion voting machines. The audit included precinct ballot scanners, ballot-marking devices and central absentee ballot scanners.

The laboratory said it found no evidence that any of the equipment was hacked or tampered with. 

“We are glad but not surprised that the audit of the state’s voting machines was an unqualified success,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “Election security has been a top priority since day one of my administration. We have partnered with the Department of Homeland Security, the Georgia Cyber Center, Georgia Tech security experts, and [a] wide range of other election security experts around the state and country so Georgia voters can be confident that their vote is safe and secure.”

Federal election officials and stakeholders said last week that there was “no evidence” that any voting system was compromised or votes lost during the Nov. 3 elections, saying that it was “the most secure in American history.”

On Monday, more than 2,600 ballots were found uncounted in Floyd County amid the recount process

In a press release updated on Tuesday, Dominion denied being responsible for the uncounted votes. 

“Dominion’s systems were not responsible for 2,631 uncounted ballots in Floyd County,” it wrote. “The State of Georgia cited the error occurred because proper procedures weren’t followed when the results were tabulated by machine.”