Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office has discovered hundreds of uncounted votes in a tight state legislative contest, reversing an apparent victory for Democrats and narrowing the party’s potential majority control of the state House of Representatives.
The late discovery of a missing memory card containing about 388 ballots shifted the outcome in southwest Georgia’s House District 154, giving Republican incumbent Rep. Gerald Greene the lead over Democratic challenger Harry James.
The oversight proved pivotal. Prior to the discovery, Democrats appeared on track to secure 92 seats in the 180-member chamber—flipping 13 Republican-held seats while losing two incumbents—and claiming control of the Georgia House for the first time in two decades. Passing legislation in the chamber requires a simple majority of 91 votes.
With Greene’s seat flipping back to the Republican column, the Democratic majority cushion shrinks from two votes to a razor-thin single vote.
“This oversight didn’t just affect the numbers — it changed who was leading an election,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “That is unacceptable, and we intend to find out exactly how it happened.”
According to the secretary of state’s office, state election officials uncovered the discrepancy during routine post-election auditing when comparing the number of checked-in voters against total tabulated ballots.
The audit revealed nearly 400 more voters had checked in than votes had been recorded, prompting a targeted search that located the unsubmitted memory card.
Even as state officials investigate the procedural failure, the outcome directly affects representation across the nine rural counties encompassed by Greene’s district in the southwest corner of the state.
The overall balance of power in the House could shift once more depending on a remaining unresolved contest.
Republican Rep. Mike Cheokas of Americus failed to secure a majority in a three-way race, sending him to a runoff against Democratic candidate Ethan Wolfe. If Wolfe defeats Cheokas in the runoff, Democrats would regain a two-vote cushion.
A Republican, lifelong conservative, licensed structural/professional engineer, and founder of the construction firm Tendon Systems, Raffensperger was a member of the Johns Creek City Council (2012–2014) and the Georgia House of Representatives before being elected as Secretary of State.
A Paradoxical Political Position
The incident places Raffensperger back in the national spotlight over election administration, a role that has defined his tenure since the 2020 presidential election.
On Jan. 2, 2021, then-President Donald Trump pressured Raffensperger during an hour-long telephone call to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. Raffensperger repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s demands, insisting the state’s certified results were accurate and legally sound.
In the immediate aftermath of his refusal to alter the 2020 results, Raffensperger faced intense hostility from within his own party. Prominent Republican figures, local party leaders, and Trump allies censured him, called for his resignation, and launched primary challenges against him.
Trump routinely denounced Raffensperger at rallies and endorsed his primary opponent in 2022.
Despite the intraparty backlash, Raffensperger won reelection in 2022 by appealing to a coalition of moderate Republicans, independents, and swing voters who supported his defense of election integrity.
Since then, mainstream Georgia Republicans have largely re-embraced Raffensperger as a standard-bearer for secure elections, frequently citing his office’s oversight measures—such as the audit that caught the missing memory card in Greene’s race—as evidence that state election safeguards work.
However, lingering skepticism remains among a faction of the party’s grassroots base loyal to Trump.
State election officials said the investigation into the missing memory card in House District 154 remains ongoing.
Republicans lose control
Georgia voters delivered a history-making Election Day in 2026, when Democrats prevailed in races for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, state school superintendent, labor commissioner and two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, the agency that oversees utility rates, while incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff retained his seat.
As the state government turned Democratic, voters changed school boards and county governments in Richmond and Columbia.
Outgoing Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced that he would not call a special session to push new political maps and curb the executive powers of future state leaders after the Democratic sweep in the 2026 midterms.
“The voters of our state have spoken. As long as I’m governor, we will always respect the results of secure, accessible, and fair elections, and also abide by the laws and constitution of our state,” Kemp said on Wednesday morning. “I will not be calling a special session of the Georgia General Assembly in order to curtail executive branch powers or debate redistricting changes.”
Leave a Reply