Georgia’s 2025 PSC runoff RLA confirms accurate vote count

Published 7:52 pm Monday, July 28, 2025

Beginning Thursday, July 24, election officials in all of Georgia’s 159 counties conducted a hand count of randomly selected ballots as part of the statewide risk-limiting audit (RLA) of the July 15, 2025 Special Primary Runoff for Public Service Commissioner. The audit focused on the Democratic contest for Public Service Commissioner, District 3.

The audit was designed to confirm the accuracy of the original vote totals. A risk limit of 5% was set for the audit, making Georgia one of the national leaders in election integrity and post-election audit standards.

The Secretary of State’s office is pleased to report that the audit confirmed the outcome of the contest.

County election officials audited 282 batches of ballots. Of those, 280 batches (99.3%) matched the original machine count exactly. The two batches that showed minor discrepancies were within the expected margin of human variation during hand counting and did not affect the outcome of the race.

Below is a comparison of the candidate vote totals from the audited batches:

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger praised county election directors for their work, stating, “County election directors deserve our praise,” he said. “They’re showing why Georgia gets top rankings in elections every day. They have a zero-fail mission, tight deadlines, yet they always go above and beyond to serve their communities.”