OFFICIAL ELECTION BULLETIN
November 12, 2020
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

TO:

County Election Officials and County Registrars

FROM:

Chris Harvey, Elections Division Director

RE:

Audit Instructions

______________________________________________________________________
Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 21-2-498 and SEB Rule 183-1-15-.04, the Secretary has
selected the contest for President of the United States to audit. While many risk-limiting
audits rely on samples of ballots, the design of risk-limiting audits combined with the
margin of this race mean that this risk-limiting audit is required to be a full manual tally
of the votes cast. SEB Rule 183-1-15-.04 requires that the Superintendent follow
instructions issued by the Secretary of State on how to specifically conduct the audit.
While there will be additional instructions issued regarding more specific processes,
initial instructions are below:
1. Start and Completion Times
Each county must start their audit no later than 9:00 a.m. on Friday, November 13, 2020
and must complete their audit no later than 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, November 18,
2020.
Public notice of the date, time, and location of the audit must be posted on the county
election office’s website, or, if the county election’s office does not have a website, in
another prominent location.
2. Public Access and Political Party Monitors
The audit shall be open to the public and the press, but no person except the persons
designated by the Superintendent shall touch any ballot or ballot container. The
Superintendent shall designate a viewing area from which members of the public and
press may observe the audit for the purpose of good order and maintaining the integrity
of the audit. The Superintendent may also choose to make the audit proceeding
available via livestream or webcast. If any member of the public or press interferes with
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 the process or persists in not following reasonable regulations and instructions set by
the Superintendent, that person shall be removed.
The State Executive Committee of each political party (Republicans and Democrats)
shall have the right to have one properly designated person act as monitor of the audit
for each ten audit teams that are conducting the audit, with a minimum of two
designated monitors in each county per party per room where the audit is being
conducted. Properly designated monitors shall have complete access to monitor the
audit. They do not have to remain in the public viewing areas. The designated monitors
shall be given a letter by the designating entity containing the name of the monitor, his
or her address, and the county in which he or she may monitor the audit. A copy of the
letter shall be delivered to the county elections superintendent prior to the monitor being
allowed to monitor the process. The designating entity shall provide their monitors with
name tags that clearly indicate their names and the entity the designated them. Such
name tags shall be worn at all times while monitoring the audit.
The Superintendent may make reasonable regulations, including regulations regarding
social distancing measures and required personal protective equipment, that designated
monitors and public observers shall follow so that they do not interfere with the auditing
process. If a designated monitor or public observer interferes with the audit after being
warned by an election official, or if he or she violated any of the prohibited activities
listed herein, the superintendent may revoke the person’s designation to monitor the
process, remove them from any further monitoring or observing, and refer the incident
to the Secretary of State’s office for investigation. Any infraction or irregularity observed
by a monitor or observer shall be reported to the superintendent or to the Secretary of
State. If a monitor’s designation is revoked by the Superintendent, the designating entity
shall have the right to designate a new monitor in the manner set forth herein.
While monitoring the process, designated monitors are prohibited from:
(a) In any way interfering with the audit process;
(b) Speaking to any member of the audit team or vote review panel;
(c) When outside of the public viewing area, using any photographic, electronic
monitoring or recording devices, cellular telephones, or other electronic
equipment;
(d) Touching any ballot or ballot container; or
(e) Engaging in any form of campaigning or campaign activity.
Before being allowed to monitor the process, each designated monitor shall execute an
oath swearing or affirming, under penalty of perjury, that they understand the
prohibitions set forth above, that they will not engage in any prohibited activity, and that
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 they understand any violations of this rule will be punishable by the State Election
Board.
3. Audit Teams
Audit teams shall consist of at least two sworn designees. The Superintendent may
designate non-employees to be a member of an audit team, but any non-employees
designated to audit teams shall be residents of the State of Georgia. Every member of
the audit team shall be a person of good moral character and shall take and sign an
oath that they will conduct the audit fairly and accurately prior to conducting the audit. In
determining the candidate for which the vote was cast, the audit teams shall refer to and
rely on SEB Rule 183-1-15-02 (Definition of a Vote) for Optical Scan Voting Systems.
4. Vote Review Panels
Any ballot where the audit team does not agree on the selection for President shall be
sent to a Vote Review Panel. Each Vote Review Panel shall consist of a designee of the
Election Superintendent and a nominee of the county or state executive committee of
each political party (Republican and Democrat) designated via letter provided to the
Superintendent. Notice of the members and location of any Vote Review Panels shall
be posted prominently at the office of the Superintendent. Prior to beginning its work,
each member of the Vote Review Panel shall take and sign an oath The panel shall
manually review all ballots sent to it by any audit team and shall determine by a majority
vote “if the elector has marked his or her ballot in such a manner that he or she has
indicated clearly and without question the candidate for whom he or she desires to
cast his or her vote.” O.C.G.A. 21-2-438(c). The determination of the Vote Review Panel
shall be final. The Superintendent may create multiple Vote Review Panels
In making its determination, the Vote Review Panel shall refer to and rely on SEB Rule
183-1-15-.02 (Definition of a Vote) for Optical Scan Voting Systems.
5. Re-Certifying if Vote Counts Change
In cases like this, where the risk-limiting audit of the selected contest has led to a full
manual tally of the ballots cast, the vote counts according to the manual tally shall
replace the vote previously reported vote counts and each county shall re-certify the
new counts for the audited race, if necessary, prior to November 20, 2020.

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