U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has instructed the Justice Department to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a sweeping 2021 election law in Georgia.

President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking broad changes to how elections are run in the U.S. is vast in scope and holds the potential to reorder the voting landscape across the country, even as it faces almost certain litigation.

A judge has ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to pay more than $54,000 in attorneys’ fees and to turn over documents after finding that her office violated Georgia’s Open Records Act.

The centerpiece election legislation from congressional Republicans would require voters to prove their citizenship when registering.

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia businesswoman and former senator, to lead the Small Business Administration.

A Georgia appeals court has upheld the dismissal of some of the charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in the Georgia 2020 election interference case.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked Georgia’s highest court to review a lower appeals court’s ruling that removed her from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others.

Republicans in Congress plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Local officials are beginning to certify the results of this year’s presidential election in a process that so far has been playing out quietly, in stark contrast to the tumultuous certification period four years ago that followed then-President Donald Trump’s loss.

U_S_ intelligence officials say a video that purports to show election fraud in Georgia is fake and the work of “Russian influence actors."

A federal judge won’t order the state of Georgia to reopen voter registration for November’s elections in the presidential battleground state.

Three voting rights groups are asking a federal judge to order the state of Georgia to reopen voter registration for November’s elections.

Georgia's Supreme Court says presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz aren't qualified to be on the state's ballots and votes for them should not count.

Georgia Supreme Court justices are expressing skepticism that votes for presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz should count.

The state that handed former President Donald Trump one of his narrowest losses four years ago is immersed in election controversies even before the first ballots of this year’s presidential race are cast.

In yet another reversal, votes in Georgia for presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz will count for now.

Federal law already allows only U.S. citizens to vote in elections for president and Congress.

Georgia voters are likely to be able to choose from six candidates for president.

A judge says four independent and third-party candidates are ineligible to appear on Georgia’s presidential ballot.

Three independent and third-party candidates got one step closer to appearing on Georgia’s presidential ballot on Tuesday.

Georgia election officials are encouraging people to use a state website to cancel voter registrations when someone moves out of state or dies.

Georgia Republicans have elected to the Republican National Committee a conservative activist who helped organize the pro-Donald Trump rally on Jan. 6, 2021.

Republican officials who believe in the legitimacy of elections have formed a group that's pushing back on the election lies and conspiracy theories that have persuaded a large share of their party that elections can't be trusted.

Officials in Georgia's most populous county have removed a banner from their website warning of an “unexpected IT outage” after it created confusion on the final day of voting for the presidential primary.

A conservative group that claimed to uncover a ballot stuffing scheme in Georgia has told a judge it has no evidence to back up its allegations.

Georgia’s General Assembly has begun its 2024 regular session.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is scheduled to speak to federal prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith's office.

Georgia election officials say they would need six to nine months to install new software and hardware to update the state’s voting system.

President Joe Biden’s plan to overhaul his party’s 2024 presidential primary schedule remains unsettled.

Georgia’s Republican secretary of state has set the battleground state’s 2024 presidential primary for March 12.

A Georgia judge has ordered the partial release later this week of a report by a special grand jury that investigated efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wants his state to become an early presidential primary host — just not in 2024, as President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are pushing.

Federal proposals that would have significantly boosted security funding for election offices and heightened penalties for threatening their staff failed to advance this year.

The executive summary of the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee’s report documents how then-President Donald Trump was repeatedly warned by those closest to him that claims he had lost his reelection due to fraud were false.

Georgia’s top elections official is urging lawmakers to end general election runoffs, but isn't offering any specific proposals.

Nevada’s most populous county and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have received subpoenas related to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of former President Donald Trump.

Georgia’s 2022 election season ended dramatically this past week.

A Georgia appeals court ruling means that counties can offer early voting this coming Saturday in the U.S. Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.

A hand count of random batches of votes in Georgia’s election for secretary of state has confirmed Republican Brad Raffensperger’s victory.

A judge has ruled that Georgia law allows counties to offer early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Georgia election officials hosted a dice roll to launch an audit of votes in last week's election for secretary of state.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign and Democratic groups are suing the state of Georgia to overturn guidance by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that counties can’t offer Saturday voting ahead of next month’s Senate runoff election.

The Democrat running to be Georgia's top elections official says says incumbent Republican Brad Raffensperger is no hero for standing up to Donald Trump.

A federal appeals court says U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia.

A group of computer and election security experts is urging Georgia officials to take extra security steps ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The shadow of Donald Trump's tampering with the 2020 election in Georgia lands differently for the various Republicans running for office in 2022.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is citing the “speech or debate” clause of the Constitution as he tries to avoid testifying before a special grand jury that’s investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others tried to illegally influence the 2020 election in Georgia.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is challenging a subpoena to testify before a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others broke any laws when they tried to overturn Joe Biden’s win in Georgia.

State Rep. Bee Nguyen will be the Democratic candidate for Georgia secretary of state in November.

The House Jan. 6 committee has heard chilling, tearful testimony that Donald Trump’s relentless pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election led to widespread threats against local workers and state officials.

The House Jan. 6 committee is expected to hear testimony from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about the extraordinary pressure he faced from former President Donald Trump to “find 11,780” votes that could flip the state to prevent Joe Biden’s election victory.

Some Republican activists are calling on abolishing Georgia’s open primary system.

Georgia’s top elections official has testified before a special grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to meddle in the 2020 election.

Georgia’s top elections official has entered a courthouse in Atlanta where he was summoned to appear before a special grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to meddle in the 2020 election.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger probably would not have won last week’s Republican primary without Democrats.

Former President Donald Trump’s crusade for vengeance suffered two devastating blows when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger won their primaries despite rejecting Trump’s entreaties to reverse his 2020 election loss.

State Rep. Bee Nguyen is advancing to a runoff in the Democratic primary for Georgia secretary of state.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has won the Republican primary in a bid to keep his job.

Georgia’s high-stakes primary election appeared to be running smoothly with no reports of major problems.

Georgia takes center stage in Tuesday’s primary elections as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger try to fight back challengers endorsed by Donald Trump.

Brad Raffensperger says the Georgia and U.S. Constitutions should be amended to prohibit voting by noncitizens.

Georgia Republicans vying for the state's top elections post sparred Monday over former President Donald Trump's false claim that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election.

When potential grand jurors show up at an Atlanta courthouse Monday, they’ll find a television camera in the room and streets closed outside.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was hostile during testimony in a hearing on her eligibility to run for reelection, saying she did not remember liking and making various social media posts surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year.

The Georgia prosecutor investigating possible attempts to interfere in the 2020 general election by former President Donald Trump and others has asked for a special grand jury to aid the investigation.

Georgia's secretary of state says Donald Trump was threatening him when he asked him to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss in Georgia.

Commissioners in Georgia's Fulton County have picked a former Atlanta City Council president to lead the county's elections board.

Republican Georgia lawmakers have started a process that could lead to a takeover of elections in the state’s most populous county.

Newly released records show the top Republicans in Arizona’s largest county dodged calls from Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of the 2020 election, as the then-president sought to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in key battleground states.

Georgia’s secretary of state says his office is reviewing the handling of paperwork related to ballot drop boxes in the state’s most populous county during last year’s election.

Officials in Surry County, North Carolina, voted to remove Coca-Cola machines from all government facilities in response to the beverage company CEO’s remarks about Georgia’s controversial new voting law, according to NBC News reporting.

Republicans in Georgia are calling for party unity to avoid more losses to Democrats in 2022.

(AP Photo/Ben Gray)ATLANTA – Critics of Georgia's new Republican-backed election law issued fresh calls Monday to boycott some of the state’s largest businesses for not speaking out more forcefully against the law, a day after advocacy organizations filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging it. The new election law was signed Thursday by Republican Gov. It also bans people from handing out food or water to voters waiting in line and allows the Republican-controlled State Election Board to remove and replace county election officials. “Georgia’s Election Integrity Act that I signed into law expands early voting and secures our vote-by-mail system to protect the integrity of our elections,” Kemp said in a recent tweet. But he said he does not support provisions that remove him as the chair of the State Election Board and replaces him with an appointee of the state legislature.

(Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP)ATLANTA – Former President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed a conservative Georgia congressman in his bid to unseat the Republican secretary of state who refused to help overturn the November election results. “Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State, Jody leads out front with integrity. “Few have done more to cynically undermine faith in our election system than Jody Hice," Raffensperger said. “Every Georgian, in fact every American, has the right to be outraged by the actions and, simultaneously, the inaction of our Secretary of State,” Hice added. He was among the many Republican officials in Georgia who relentlessly pushed Trump’s false claims of voter fraud last fall.

Both men say they support Georgia Republicans' efforts to enact an ID requirement for absentee voting that would do away with the state's signature matching system, which Trump heavily attacked. As Trump disputed Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia, Raffensperger argued the election was accurate and fair. A recorded conversation between Trump and Raffensperger leaked to media, allowing the public to hear Trump pressure Raffensperger and his office to “find 11,000-plus votes” to reverse Biden’s win. The House version, which passed Monday on a party-line vote, would require a photo ID for absentee voting and limit the number of weekend days counties can schedule early voting, among many other changes. The Senate bill would limit absentee voting to just seniors, people with disabilities and people who’ll be out of town.

Her office confirmed that the probe includes a call in which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state. Following the November general election, Trump refused to accept his loss by about 12,000 votes in Georgia, long a Republican stronghold. In a Jan. 2 telephone conversation with Raffensperger, Trump repeatedly suggested Raffensperger could change the certified results of the presidential election, an assertion the secretary of state firmly rejected. “BJay” Pak, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Atlanta, was a “never-Trumper” — a term often used for conservative critics of Trump. That’s just logical.”Prior to his call with Raffensperger, Trump tried unsuccessfully to pressure others in Georgia.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, right, walks to his office in the Capitol Building Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, in Atlanta. In a Jan. 2 telephone conversation with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results of the presidential election, an assertion the secretary of state firmly rejected. After the November general election, Trump refused to accept that Biden had beaten him. Prior to his call last month to Raffensperger, Trump had tried to pressure others in Georgia. Investigators with the secretary of state’s office who look into such complaints typically present their findings to the state election board, which then decides how to proceed.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, right, walks to his office in the Capitol Building Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, in Atlanta. “The Secretary of State’s office investigates complaints it receives. Trump had refused to accept his loss to Democrat Joe Biden and focused much of his attention on Georgia, a traditionally red state that he narrowly lost. During the Jan. 2 phone call, Trump repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results, an assertion the secretary of state firmly rejected. Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, said in a statement that there was “nothing improper or untoward about a scheduled call between President Trump, Secretary Raffensperger and lawyers on both sides.”Investigators will present their findings to the state election board, which will then decide how to proceed.

It occurred as election officials were conducting an audit of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes in Cobb County. Trump pressed the investigator to look into Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that contains most of Atlanta. AdVarious election officials across the country and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. During another call in early December, Trump pressed Georgia Gov. In last week’s call with Raffensperger, Trump urged the secretary of state to change the certified results.

ATLANTA – Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party's reach. Warnock, 51, acknowledged his improbable victory in a message to supporters early Wednesday, citing his family’s experience with poverty. Trump's claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, while meritless, resonated with Republican voters in Georgia. AP VoteCast found that 6 in 10 Georgia voters say Senate party control was the most important factor in their vote. “I feel like for the Republican candidates to still stand there with Trump and campaign with Trump feels pretty rotten.

The Republican president, who has refused to accept his loss to Democratic President-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results. Because we won the state," said Trump, who is scheduled to be at a rally in Georgia Monday evening. “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions," Raffensperger told Trump on the call. Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. Loeffler and Perdue have largely backed Trump in his attempts to overturn election results.

I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," Trump said. The Associated Press obtained the full audio of Trump’s conversation with Georgia officials from a person on the call. Trump has repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger conducted Georgia’s elections, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly given to Biden. “He has no clue!” Trump tweeted of Raffensperger, saying the state official “was unwilling, or unable” to answer questions. Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true.

Trump said earlier in the day that Kemp, a fellow Republican, was an “obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia, BIG!" Investigators who audited the signatures on more than 15,000 absentee ballot envelopes in one Georgia county found “no fraudulent absentee ballots,” according to the audit report. Before submitting an absentee ballot, a voter must sign an oath on an outer envelope. When county election officials receive an absentee ballot, they must compare the signature to the absentee ballot application if one exists and to the signature on file. If the signature does match, the ballot is separated from the envelope to protect the right to ballot secrecy guaranteed by Georgia law.

ATLANTA – President Donald Trump has lost his latest legal challenge seeking to overturn Georgia's election results, with the state Supreme Court's rejection late Saturday of a case from Trump's campaign and Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer. The case was subsequently appealed directly to the state Supreme Court, asking justices to consider the case before Monday’s meeting of the Electoral College. It’s the latest legal setback in the president’s efforts to overturn the election results. In Georgia, he has rained criticism on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Last week, Raffensberger again recertified the state’s election results after a recount requested by Trump confirmed once again that Biden won the state, and the governor then recertified the state’s 16 presidential electors.

Many Republican voters in Georgia are angry; certain that widespread voter fraud claims of which are baseless cost President Donald Trump the election. (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)ATLANTA – Many Republican voters in Georgia are angry. They're convinced that widespread voter fraud — claims that are baseless — cost President Donald Trump the election to Democrat Joe Biden. But interviews with voters and party activists in the state suggest there's little sign that Trump's voters are planning to stay home in protest. Jeanne Seaver, a Republican activist in Georgia who worked on Trump's 2016 campaign, said she believes that Republican voters will still come out to support Perdue and Loeffler despite the anger on the ground.

ATLANTA – Georgia’s secretary of state has received death threats over his handling of last month’s election, but he's found a fan in Arnold Schwarzenegger. The call was organized by the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Schwarzenegger explained to Raffensperger that the institute plans to bestow Democracy Action Hero awards next week over Zoom. The institute has received more requests for polling center grants from Georgia than from any other state and has invested $1.4 million in grants for polling sites in the state, Schwarzenegger said. He thanked Raffensperger for not standing in the way of opening more polling sites, saying election officials in some states have rejected their efforts.

ATLANTA – Georgia's top elections official on Monday recertified the state's election results after a recount requested by President Donald Trump confirmed once again that Democrat Joe Biden won the state, and the governor then recertified the state's 16 presidential electors. Since the results of a recount become the official results, those counties had to recertify their results. After the initial count following Election Day, Raffensperger selected the presidential race for an audit required by state law. Fulton County's recount results showed 880 fewer votes than the results certified after election night, with an overwhelming majority of those votes coming from Biden’s total in the county. The suit alleged widespread fraud and sought to decertify the results of the presidential race in Georgia, among other things.

Republicans are zeroing in on a plan to require a photo ID for ballots cast by mail. Brian Kemp, both Republicans who have been publicly lambasted by Trump, have joined the push to require a photo ID for absentee voting. She said that while signature matches provide some security for mail-in ballots, the process should be shored up. Democrats and voting rights groups have for years sought to decrease rejections of absentee ballots in Georgia, arguing that minorities have been disproportionately affected. Absentee ballots are sometimes rejected because signatures on the outer envelope are deemed not to match signatures in the voter registration system, or because the envelope is not signed at all.

In this Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020 photo, Gabriel Sterling a top Georgia elections official stands during a news conference, in Atlanta. On Tuesday Dec. 1, 2020, Sterling called on President Donald Trump to condemn supporters who have threatened violence against election officials. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)ATLANTA – A top Georgia elections official on Tuesday lashed out angrily at the rhetoric surrounding the election and the threats of violence that have resulted, specifically calling on President Donald Trump to rein in his supporters. “Rigged Election,” Trump tweeted. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler both issued statements Tuesday evening condemning violence but also criticizing election officials, according to news outlets.

ATLANTA – Georgia's top elections official announced investigations Monday into potential violations of election law even as he defended the integrity of the state's election against what he's said are baseless attacks. President Donald Trump, who narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia, is among those criticizing the state's handling of the election. A sworn statement from a Republican official in Gwinnett County, in Atlanta's suburbs, says there were more absentee ballots than absentee ballot envelopes, Sterling said. Also Monday, a lawyer for Trump sent a letter to Raffensperger requesting an audit of signatures on absentee ballot applications and envelopes in the November election. Signatures on absentee ballot envelopes must be verified against signatures on file when they’re received.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)GAINESVILLE, Ga. – Twin Georgia Senate runoffs have Republicans in a quandary. They could admit President Donald Trump lost his re-election bid and turn all attention to salvaging a Senate majority to counter President-elect Joe Biden. “I’m here because I stand with President Donald Trump,” Pence declared in Gainesville, Georgia. Brian Kemp, himself a former Georgia secretary of state, on social media. The 60-year-old came to see Pence, Loeffler and both Perdues, but made clear she was there because of her loyalties to the president.

Georgia's results showed Biden beating Trump by 12,670 votes out of about 5 million cast, or 0.25%. A Trump legal team statement said: “Today, the Trump campaign filed a petition for recount in Georgia. We are focused on ensuring that every aspect of Georgia State Law and the U.S. Constitution are followed so that every legal vote is counted. County election workers have already done a complete hand recount of all the votes cast in the presidential race. State law requires that one race be audited by hand to ensure that the machines counted the ballots accurately, and Raffensperger selected the presidential race.

Georgia’s top elections official on Friday certified election results showing Joe Biden won the presidential election after a hand tally stemming from a mandatory audit affirmed the Democrat’s lead over Republican President Donald Trump. The final results certified by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had Biden with 2.47 million votes, President Donald Trump with 2.46 million votes and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen with 62,138. “Working as an engineer throughout my life, I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a news conference at the state Capitol. “As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct. It is the totals certified by the counties, not the results of the hand tally, that will be certified by the state.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020, in Atlanta. Trump’s endorsement two years ago helped Kemp win a heated Republican primary and eke out a narrow general election victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams. The counties' results were affirmed by a hand count of the 5 million ballots cast in the race, according to results released by the secretary of state's office. That recount would be done using scanning machines that read and tally the votes and would be paid for by the counties, the secretary of state’s office has said. “It’s quite honestly hard to believe that during the audit thousands of uncounted ballots were found weeks after a razor-thin outcome in a presidential election,” Kemp said.

Kemp, Georgia's top elected Republican, has staked out a position on the sidelines. Kemp has neither endorsed Trump's fraud claims nor backed Raffensperger in his assertion that the election was conducted fairly. He said he's concerned an escalating debate over the validity of Georgia's presidential election could hurt Republican turnout in January. “Governor Kemp will hopefully see the light before it is too late. Must finally take charge!” Trump tweeted Tuesday, referring to a poll that suggested Kemp's approval among Georgia voters was sagging.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he chose the presidential race because of its significance and tight margin. Because of the close results, he said, a full hand recount would be needed to complete the audit. The actual number of rejected ballots was about 350% higher, but that matched the overall increase in absentee ballots, the release says. Two years ago, 454 absentee ballots were rejected out of 284,393. The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the presidential race in Georgia, where Biden led Trump by 0.3 percentage points.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020, in Atlanta. Georgia election officials have announced an audit of presidential election results that will trigger a full hand recount. “The secretary of state has failed to deliver honest and transparent elections,” GOP Sens. After the Trump campaign asked for a hand recount of all 5 million votes cast in Georgia, Raffensperger chose the presidential election for an audit, which Georgia law now requires for one statewide race each election cycle. Not shying away from the fact that he's a Republican, Raffensperger has said publicly that he wished Trump had won.

Raffensperger's comments came as election officials across the state were working to complete a hand recount of votes in the presidential race. County election board Chairman Tom Rees said it appears the ballots were cast during in-person early voting but election officials weren’t sure how they were missed. But the county had the paper ballots and caught the problem during the hand tally, he said. County election officials were instructed to complete the count by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. State election officials have said they wouldn't release any results from the tally until the whole process is complete.

ATLANTA – Masked election workers in teams of two began counting ballots Friday in counties across Georgia, a hand tally of the presidential race that stems from an audit required by a new state law. Across the state, audit teams worked with batches of paper ballots, dividing them into piles for each candidate, before counting each pile by hand. Bipartisan panels were on hand to review certain ballots, including those where the auditors couldn't agree on the voter’s intent and those with write-in candidates. But critics have accused him of caving to Trump after the president's campaign and state Republicans requested a hand recount. Critics have also argued that a full hand recount was not intended under Georgia's audit requirement and imposes an unnecessarily heavy and expensive burden on county election officials.

ATLANTA – As Georgia counties prepare for a hand tally of the presidential race, the state's top elections official planned to quarantine after his wife tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said Thursday. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s wife, Tricia, tested positive on Thursday, the deputy secretary of state, Jordan Fuchs, told The Associated Press. An audit of one race is required by law but it's up to the secretary of state to choose the race. Sterling emphatically denied that the selection of the presidential race and subsequent decision to do a full hand count was the result of pressure from the president. Doing a hand count of the nearly 5 million votes cast in Georgia during the Nov. 3 election is a massive task.