Georgia election 2026: Officials investigate alleged memory card issue in rural Georgia county

The Georgia Sec. of State’s Office announced an investigation opened in a rural southwest Georgia county after reports of a memory card issue during Tuesday’s elections.

According to Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger’s office, Seminole County election officials uploaded “several hundred Election Day votes” late after a post-election review discovered a discrepancy.

“During routine post-election checks, the Secretary of State’s office identified approximately 388 more voters recorded as having checked in at polling places on Election Day than the number of ballots reported as cast in Seminole County,” the office said in a statement.

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When asked about the discrepancy, county election officials told the Sec. of State’s office that there was a memory card containing election results that had not uploaded to the election management system.

State officials said that changed the apparent outcome of the State House District 154 election, between incumbent State Rep. Gerald Greene and Democratic challenger Harry James.

“Prior to the discovery, incumbent State Representative Gerald Greene trailed by less than 100 votes. Following the inclusion of those results, Greene now leads by 262 votes,” state officials said.

The memory card being overlooked is now under investigation.

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Georgia’s election safeguards are designed to identify discrepancies, and that is exactly what these guardrails did," Raffensperger said in a statement. “Our office identified a significant discrepancy, alerted county officials, and uncovered a failure to properly upload election results. This oversight didn’t just affect the numbers - it changed who was leading an election.”

He said this was unacceptable. State investigators are now working to learn how the card was overlooked and whether required election procedures were followed.

In response to the investigation, Seminole County officials said all chain of custody protocols were followed and all memory cards were accounted for.

The Seminole County Board of Elections said “the Election Management System computer did not complete its program for the last precinct’s memory card. Therefore, the Election Summary Reporter marked ‘Unofficial and Incomplete’ was just that...”

The elections staff for Seminole County said the ballots counted, the ballot scanner tape and the data in the memory cards all showed a total of 2,911 ballots were cast.

“When we met to certify on Friday, the Secretary of State’s office had already alerted us to the possible issue,” officials said. “The EMS’s program did indeed show that the last step to validate and publish the results were not completed. This step was accomplished and the program run was successfully completed.”

After, the county election staff said the EMS report was marked “final and Complete” and matched the ballot totals and scanner tape totals, with an increase of 388 ballots reported from the Unofficial and Incomplete report sent out on election night.

As for what happens next, the Sec. of State’s office said “county election officials have until Monday to certify their election results.”

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