How Georgia Votes
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The League of Women Voters of Georgia is publishing a special series of articles in their The Gold Dome and Beyond newsletter. The articles examine our electoral process and why it guarantees accuracy and deserves our trust every week between now and the Nov. 3 midterms.
Please follow along as we chart the processes, the policies and the people that keep our elections free, fair and accurate.
How Georgia Votes: How Votes Are Counted And Audited
October 15, 2026
Early in-person voting and by mail-in ballot has begun. More than half of total ballots will be cast before election day. We’ll get daily updates on those totals from scanner counts and elections offices counting mail-in ballots as they are received. But that will only tell us how many people voted, not who they voted for. Divulging how candidates are doing before the process is complete could keep some people from voting and skew the outcome. The votes on those ballots aren’t tabulated until the polls close at 7 pm on election night.
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When Does Tabulation Begin?
Tabulation cannot begin until the polls close. As mail-in ballots come in, they are carefully removed from the envelopes and scanned in batches. When the polls close, the election supervisor will automatically tabulate all those scanned mail-in ballots at once. The same will happen with the memory cards from the scanners that were in early polling locations.
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When Do We Begin Getting Early Results?
Tabulations from mail-in ballots and early voting are immediately transmitted by counties to the Secretary of State in Atlanta. Within minutes, we begin getting early results.
Election day results take longer to allow time for poll workers to close their precincts, post counts on precinct doors, secure and pack up equipment, and deliver the memory cards from the scanner/tabulators to county election headquarters.
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When Do We Begin Getting Election Day Results?
Memory cards from each precinct will be uploaded from county elections offices and those results will go to the Secretary of State. His office will update results throughout the evening and share them with the public.
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Does That Mean the Tabulation Is Final?
No. There are still ballots left to count. Overseas ballots from deployed military personnel and citizens living abroad must be tabulated. Voters who cast provisional ballots have three days to cure their ballots before they can be included in the final tabulation. That deadline is close of business on the Friday following the election.
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Are The Results Audited?
There’s always an audit. Georgia is one of 16 states that require audits of election results. A risk-limiting audit is, according to the Carter Center, “widely recognized as the most technically accurate and efficient approach to post-election auditing.” In a risk-limiting audit, 10-sided dice are rolled to generate a 20-digit number. That number is used by each of the 159 county election offices to pick a random batch of ballots to audit by hand. Poll workers match the number of ballot print-outs to those scanned by the machines. The risk limit, the probability of an incorrect outcome, is set at 6% in 2026 and 5% thereafter. Poll workers aren’t allowed to audit ballots from the polls they worked on election day, nor do they know the tabulation results until the numbers exactly match.
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Does This Happen Behind Closed Doors?
No. The risk-limiting audit is transparent. Anyone can go to election headquarters and observe the audit. Georgia audits to ensure accuracy.
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Were There Any Changes to the Process During the Special Session of the General Assembly?
Georgia used to require audits of the race at the top of the ballot and one other race chosen by the Secretary of State. A new law, SB 3EX, now requires risk-limiting audits of all federal races, along with races for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General. Another race is chosen by a majority vote of the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the House, and the minority leaders in the House and Senate. If that majority vote isn’t made by the Thursday after the election, the Secretary of State decides. County elections supervisors have discretion to expand risk-limiting audits and to include additional races.
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Is an Audit The Same Thing as a Recount?
Risk-limiting audits aren’t the same as recounts, even though the two processes are much the same. SB 3EX now requires hand recounts when a race for one of the top two statewide offices on a ballot is within a 0.5% margin of the vote. Candidates may also demand a hand recount of their races within that 0.5% margin.
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