Georgia election audit leads to discovery of more than 3,000 uncounted ballots in two counties

As Georgia continues conducting an audit of the 2020 presidential election, an additional 3,000 uncounted ballots have turned up in two counties.

In Fayette County, 2,755 ballots that were not initially included in the original count have now been discovered.

"There was an issue where we noticed there were more people on the absentee ballot filed for voting in person in Fayette County than was in the actual reporting. ... Because of the audit, we found this," said Gabriel Sterling, a Georgia election official.

Sterling says the issue was a result of individuals failing to follow proper voting procedures.

In Walton County, another 284 ballots were discovered after votes were uploaded from only one of two ballot scanners in a precinct. 

These latest figures follow the discovery of more than 2,600 uncounted ballots in Floyd County. 

Also in Walton County, a memory card with 224 uncounted votes – including as many as 176 for President Trump – was discovered Tuesday, according to Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer.

"Our monitors tell us that Walton County election officials have found a memory card that was apparently not uploaded. The number of uncounted votes is not as large as in Floyd or Fayette but the President will pick up votes," Shafer tweeted.

At a press conference on Tuesday night, Gabriel Sterling with the Georgia secretary of state’s office told reporters that, in Walton County, "there may be a memory card with 224 votes on it from an Election Day polling location," according to the Epoch Times.

Fayette and Floyd counties previously reported discovering memory cards with uncounted votes.

Some officials have pointed to a lack of sufficient observation of the ballot counting process as a potential reason for the thousands of uncounted votes now being discovered. 

"If this was human error and the Board of Elections allowed the parties, allowed the public to view the counting of the ballots, we could have seen that," said Floyd County GOP chair Luke Martin. "But we didn't get the opportunity to be there." 

Both Fayette and Walton Counties lean heavily Republican, meaning the undercount of votes in support of the President did not initially look suspicious, as he still won handily in both areas. 

Vote numbers may change as the Georgia audit continues. At present, Democrat Joe Biden leads Trump by 13,000 votes – down from 14,000 following the updated Fayette County ballot count. The Georgia recount deadline is Wednesday at midnight.