ATLANTA — Georgia’s manual recount began Friday morning as election workers reviewed the first of nearly 5 million ballots to confirm the outcome of the presidential race.
The recount started at 9 a.m. and will last until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, resulting in a new, official count in the race where Joe Biden led Donald Trump by 14,000 votes as of Friday morning.
The cost of Georgia recount six-day recount isn’t known, but initial estimates from DeKalb County indicate it might be pricey.
DeKalb officials said Friday the recount will cost about $180,000, including $147,000 in pay, $20,000 for food and beverages, and $12,000 for personal protective equipment and other coronavirus-related precautions.
The numbers are preliminary and may change, according to DeKalb.
County governments — and their taxpayers — are responsible for the cost of the recount ordered by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. State election officials have said they’re seeking federal funding to help reimburse some of the costs borne by counties.
DeKalb was in the process Friday of setting up operations at the former Sam’s Club in Stonecrest, where it plans to start its part of the recount at 7 a.m. Saturday.
Officials said the facility — which was used as an early voting site for the election — provides more space and allows for better social distancing than would be possible at the county’s elections office off Memorial Drive.
The arduous hand count will be closely watched across the nation as voters seek final results in the presidential contest.
Teams of election workers will check each voter’s choices on all ballots, both those printed by computers at in-person voting sites and absentee ballots filled out by hand. They’ll sort ballots into piles for each presidential candidate, then add up the number of ballots in each stack.
The recount, conducted under Georgia’s election audit rules, is a major test of election integrity.
State election officials hope the manual recount will build voter confidence in the original tally, which was tabulated by scanning ballots through computers. But discrepancies, delays or disputes could undermine the process.
Whichever candidate wins Georgia will take its 16 votes in the Electoral College.
The secretary of state’s office asked all of Georgia’s 159 counties to begin the recount Friday, but some large counties needed more time. Fulton and DeKalb counties in metro Atlanta won’t be ready to begin their recounts until Saturday.
But Cobb and Gwinnett counties moved forward Friday. The recount will start with absentee ballots, which accounted for over one-fourth of all votes cast, before reviewing computer-printed ballots.
New election results won’t be reported as they’re tallied. Instead, the secretary of state’s office will release the progress each county has made in completing the count.
Outcomes will only be made public after counties finish.
The recount faces tight deadlines.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wants it finished by Wednesday so that he can certify election results by Friday, Nov. 20, the deadline set in Georgia law 17 days after Election Day.
That date is important because federal law requires absentee ballots for Georgia’s Jan. 5 U.S. Senate runoff to begin to be sent to military and oversees voters by the following day, Nov. 21.
