Secretary of State accuses Fulton County of ‘cutting corners’ in recount

ATLANTA — The third count of votes from the November election is nearing an end. Fifty counties are now finished but one local county is having issues.

The Secretary of State revealed the problems that Fulton County was having, and accused the county of “cutting corners.”

Counties have until midnight Wednesday to finish their recount.

[SPECIAL SECTION: Election 2020]

Brad Raffensperger said most are on track to finish on time, but he’s pointing the finger to the Georgia World Congress Center as the biggest right now. That is where Fulton County is counting ballots and that process slowed and required re-scanning of hundreds of thousands of ballots because of a major server failure over the weekend.

[READ: Key Dates for 2020 Runoff Elections in Georgia]

The county pins the blame on a state-issued piece of equipment but Raffensperger said it happened because Fulton employees did not follow proper procedures.

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The Secretary of State is also upset that Fulton stopped counting at 4:45 p.m. Sunday and 5 p.m. on Monday, leaving a lot of work left to do today and tomorrow. He also says they are only using half of the high-speed scanners today because there aren’t enough employees working.

“They can still make it by our midnight Wednesday deadline but they seem to want to make it a dramatic finish and I think us in our office and the rest of the state are getting a little tired of having to wait on Fulton County and put up with their dysfunction,” Raffensperger said.

Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts said its time to picking on the state’s largest county. And said the issues came from a state-issued server and the county will meet the deadline.

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