DeKalb County will start election recount a day late

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County says it won’t be ready to start the election recount Friday.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wanted it to start today but the elections coordinator said she needs more time to get ready.

County staff and volunteers are getting a huge space in Stonecrest ready for the work they have to do this weekend. They will begin recounting 373,000 votes Saturday at 7 a.m.

[RELATED: Recount period in Georgia to begin Friday morning]

The preparation is about more than just getting ready to count ballots.

DeKalb’s public health director has to make sure the space is safe from COVID-19.

Workers will clean the building, and then 150 workers will gather Saturday morning.

DeKalb Elections Supervisor Erica Hamilton said she’s not sure how long it’ll take.

“We will go until its finished. I’ll say our completion day is Wednesday. We hope it’s Wednesday, but we’re just going to say it’s Wednesday at this point,” Hamilton said.

[SPECIAL SECTION: Election 2020]

The DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections had a virtual meeting Thursday to go over how they’re going to pull this off.

They’re splitting workers into two teams of 75 people each.

One team will start in the morning and work through the day.

The second team will start in the afternoon and end at 11 p.m.

Hamilton said in order to be prepared, they need to wait until Saturday morning.

“And so we want to make sure everything is in place, so I do not suggest us starting at 9 a.m. I think I’ll keep our start time at 7 a.m. on Saturday. It allows us to get everything in place,” Hamilton said.

All 159 counties need to finish counting by Nov. 20.

Fulton County lays out plans on how to handle a recount in Georgia's most populated county

Cox Media Group