TYBs
Lycoming County PA 2020 Election Recounts Completed
https://www.sungazette.com/news/top-news/2023/01/2020-election-recounts-completed/
It is done.
Over two years after the 2020 presidential election, the final batch of ballots were counted again, this time by hand, early Wednesday afternoon.
There were 59,481 ballots within the official results from the election that were counted, according to Forrest Lehman, director of Voter Services.
…
“It took a little over two days to get through the batches once, and then the additional time was spent today, Wednesday, (going) back through some of the batches a second time because the first time that they were looked at; we had some number discrepancies…,” Lehman said.
…
So, did counting by hand add the element of accuracy those who petitioned for it sought?
According to Lehman, not so much.
“One of the things I learned at least as a result of this is that I don’t believe the hand count added any value to the process. If anything, it injected additional human error,” he said.
…
“I know that the people out there who requested this don’t trust the machines, but when we release the results, it’s going to show that they’re very close and that the variations that we will have discovered would have been discoverable much more quickly, much more easily by a regular machine recount,” he said.
…
Lehman anticipates sending out a media release within the next day or two to state what the results were compared to the original official certified results from 2020 and what were the net changes in vote totals for the two races.
After that initial announcement, there would be a board of elections meeting where there would be more time to present more detail to the public, Lehman said.
…
Although he has not spoken with any of the people who had requested the recount as the process draws to an end, Lehman offered his opinion on what it has shown.
“To me, it confirms what I knew all along. Somebody asked me once, why do you have faith in the voting system? It’s not faith,” he said. “It’s a belief based on evidence that, in fact, we test this equipment before every election. We do audits after every election. When we’ve done statewide recounts those numbers stay close. They stay accurate.”
…
“We have statewide recounts. We have it before and after the elections and we have it here from a hand count where those numbers are hardly going to change. At that point, I don’t know what’s left to argue,” he said.