Trump Gains Handful of Votes in Franklin, Hart County Hand Recount, Biden Loses Several Votes

President Donald Trump picked only a handful of votes in Franklin and Hart counties during the hand recount of the Presidential ballots.

According to Franklin County Elections Supervisor Gina Kesler, the hand recount gave Trump 9,072 up from the November 3 total of 9,069, and for Joe Biden 1,589 – down from the election night total of 1,593.

Libertarian Jo Jorgenson recount gave her 102 votes – down from 103 votes election night.

In Hart County, the results were similar in that Trump picked up several more votes and Biden lost several, according to Hart County Elections Supervisor Robin Webb.

“Trump went up two votes from 9,464 to 9,466 and Biden went down two votes from 3,157 to 3,155,” she said Thursday.

The Secretary of State’s office is expected to release the overall state recount today.

Meantime, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Thursday the number of absentee ballot rejections for signature issues increased approximately 350% in the November 2020 election in Georgia from the 2018 election, about the same rate of increase as the total number of absentee ballots accepted.

2,011 absentee ballots were rejected in the November 2020 election for missing or non-matching signatures out of just over 1.3 million absentee ballots cast.

In November 2018, that number was 454 absentee rejected ballots in the State for missing or non-matching signatures out of 284,393 absentee ballots cast.

In the 2020 Primary, 3,266 absentee ballot were rejected for missing or non-matching signatures out of just over 1.1 million absentee ballots cast, a rejection rate of 0.28%. T

he lower rejection rate in the general election compared to the primary is likely the result of both parties attempting to help voters cure their absentee ballots pursuant to the process set forth in Georgia statute.

Numbers for total number of rejected absentee ballots for the 2020 election, including ballots received after the 7:00 p.m. Election Day deadline, are still being input by county election officials and are not yet available.