Oops! @GaSecofState was just kidding about certifying the results of this massive politically motivated "recount/audit/re-tally/hand count."

He was finally forced to admit that he cannot use the expensive illicit process to change the vote count.
https://bit.ly/CGGsosCount  1/

2/ We @CoalitionGoodGv have been warning since before the counting exercise began that it could not be used as a recount, and could not change the tallies if errors were found.
@GaSecofState hid this information from 159 counties until yesterday, and forced this mess on them.

3/ We sent this letter to Fulton and other counties just after the counting exercise was announced. We've urged the press to demand answers.
It was obvious from the beginning that this was a political game and the counties would pay the price.
https://bit.ly/CGGhandcount 

4/ The press and the counties were told that the huge counting exercise would led to accurate new official totals....
(But it was a way to try to appease GOP demands for a hand count, not in the law.)

https://apnews.com/article/ap-explains-georgia-audit-or-recount-9adf1d0ed50f8788572b4f7e0f04027e

5/ A rule adopted by Raffensperger's St. Elec. Bd. required that RLAs start this year, and that he could make the sole decision on which race to audit.

After saying that he would pick an easy one that would have small sample, (also sketchy), he kowtowed to GOP.

6/ The lack of emperor's clothes on this bogus "recount" exercise was beginning to be better understood after @OSET issued this report. https://trustthevote.org/blog/2020/11/13/game-of-margins-part2/

7/ It is now better understood that Trump can request a discretionary recount, and/or wait until SOS certification on Friday and ask for a mandatory legal recount--not some made up counting exercise.

8/ Any real recount in GA would be by machine (although that is not necessarily great, it is the law), unless a court orders a manual recount.
A manual recount would be done very differently than this crazy counting exercise now being conducted.

9/ Legal manual recounts require multi-partisan teams to count--counters are approved by the political parties to protect their interests.

Batches of no more than 30 ballots are counted to provide control. (Some counties had 5,000+ batches this time counted by 2 people.)

10/ Legal manual recounts are very different than this made-up exercise by @GaSecofState. They are far more organized and controlled with multi-partisan checks and balances.

2 person counting teams are not permitted in a real manual recount. 3 is minimum.

11/ One question is how did this get this far with so much national attention on this "recount/re-tally/audit/handcount/all-in-one" exercise without people pushing back on why this extra-legal effort was taking place that could not change the official result?

12/ As soon as audit was announced, we @CoalitionGoodGv urged counties to demand answers to these questions. Either few did, or did not get answers and did not push back before charging ahead. See our letter of Nov. 12.
…https://coaltionforgoodgovernance.sharefile.com/share/view/s1c273957869948b

13/ We call on @GaSecofState to reimburse the cost the counties incurred of this politically driven exercise that did not need to be a mess like this one is.

14/ If @GaSecofState wanted to have a hand-counted official legal recount, he merely needs to go to court and explain why a manual count is needed, and get a court order. If the SOS tells a court that hand count is necessary to get accurate result, no court would deny it.

15/ Then the counties would have the parties with a candidate on the ballot (Dems, GOP, Libertarian) nominate and approve the 3 member counting teams.

Controlled processes mandated by Election Code (not made up rules) would be enforced--like 30 ballot batches.

16/ If @GaSecofState wants to call this an "all in one" and a "recount triggered by the audit," why did he bypass all the legal requirements of a manual recount?

Here's his announcement of his "recount."
https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/monitors_closely_observing_audit-triggered_full_hand_recount_transparency_is_built_into_process

What was this really all about?

17/ He claimed this was a manual "recount"---but then created rules that were in direct conflict with the election code's requirements for a manual recount:
…https://coaltionforgoodgovernance.sharefile.com/d-s760c76f4af1f475

18/ And I have a question for the @GaRepublicans -- You have been complaining about access to the count (and you have some legit concerns about transparency), but if this was a recount, you could appoint a person as a counter at every table. Why didn't you? Why be silent?

19/ We @CoalitionGoodGv are non-partisan and just want a fair process and result. But we have to ask the @GaRepublicans and @GaSecofState why have you put the thousands citizens-- officials, staffers, audit board members, support teams, through this? #gapol

20/ You knew how to get a legal hand recount and didn't want to take the responsibilities associated with it.
So you shortcut and bastardized a PORTION of an audit exercise to meet your partisan goals at great expense to the counties and added more public health risk!

21/ We wonder why @CarterCenter, @VerifiedVoting, @BrennanCenter have put their names on this arbitrary made up process where the public has been misled as to what the end result of this process would be.

They knew that it was being made up by @GaSecofState and @voting_works

22/ The SOS pretends that they just now figured out that @voting_works Arlo doesn't record precinct level data. This is ridiculous.

Reimburse the counties for their cost of this craziness.