Fulton County board certifies State Senate District 35 special election after review of tabulator log

The Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections on Nov. 24 certified the results of the special election for State Senate District 35 after a brief review of ballot reports and a tabulator log that showed a date reset on a CT Martin scanner.

Board members paused certification to resolve reporting questions and to review a system log for a tabulator at CT Martin that repeatedly reverted to a default date. IT staff and the information systems manager, John Ross, told the board the scanner appeared to default to 12/31/2125 when its internal clock reset. "It was a scanner malfunction is what it looks like to me," a board official said during the meeting.

Director Williams explained the discrepancy among automated reports and the ballot summary, saying the election summary report lists 6,429 ballot scans in total and that under-votes and unresolved write-ins are handled as separate counts. "The 39 that's on your election summary report is a stand alone number of undervotes, which means the voter did not select anything on the ballot," Williams said, adding that the 14 unresolved write-ins are recorded separately.

Staff said the county keeps internal logs that record when a poll worker issues a ballot activation code to a voter who does not appear on the poll pad; those activation-code entries may not appear on the high-level ballot summary but are available in the voter participation and other system reports. Staff also committed to checking with the vendor (Dominion Voting Systems) to see whether backup log files exist that would show the real-time clock events for the CT Martin tabulator.

The board's IT manager brought the advanced voting scanner logs to the meeting on a jump drive and reviewed them with members during the precertification pause. Staff reported that the number on the results tapes and the physical ballots matched and that logic-and-accuracy (L&A) paperwork for the scanner was correct. "They are," Director Williams said when asked whether the attached election summary results were a true and correct count.

Following the review and the staff assurances that the vote totals matched the ballots and supporting paperwork, a member moved to certify the election. The motion carried by voice vote; the chair recorded the ayes and announced the election certified. The board signed the certification documents and adjourned to its next meeting.

The board asked staff to follow up with the tabulator vendor about the date-reset behavior, to document any remedial action taken, and to include clearer activation-code reporting in future summaries or staff guidance so reporting discrepancies are easier to reconcile. The meeting closed after a unanimous voice vote to adjourn.