A memory card that Seminole County election officials failed to upload has flipped a Georgia House race, turning an apparent Democratic win into a lead for the Republican incumbent and shrinking the majority Democrats expected to take in January.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said officials discovered that 388 Election Day votes had not been added to the county’s election management system. Once those votes were counted, Republican state Rep. Gerald Greene, who had been declared the loser to Democrat Harry James in District 154, held a lead of 262 votes.
🚨 #BREAKING: A lost memory card of "uncounted" votes just FLIPPED an election from Democrat to Republican in Georgia. Republican Rep. Gerald Greene went from trailing Democrat Harry James by 58 votes to now LEADING by 262 votes. I WAS TOLD THIS NEVER HAPPENS!!!!! https://t.co/CilONO8E1e
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) November 8, 2026
“Georgia’s election safeguards are designed to identify discrepancies, and that is exactly what these guardrails did,” Raffensperger said in a statement reported by The Center Square. “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. That is unacceptable, and we intend to find out exactly how it happened.”
What the unofficial totals show now
The Georgia Secretary of State’s unofficial results, last updated Saturday afternoon, listed Greene with 10,193 votes, or 50.65 percent, and James with 9,932 votes, or 49.35 percent, with all nine localities reporting. Counties are required to certify their results by Monday. Raffensperger’s office has until Nov. 20 to certify them statewide.
🚨 BREAKING: A missing memory card has FLIPPED the apparent outcome of a Georgia House race. Republican Gerald Greene went from trailing Democrat Harry James by 58 votes to LEADING by 262 after uncounted votes were discovered in Seminole County. Officials found a 388-vote discrepancy during routine checks. If the result holds, Democrats will have just a ONE-SEAT majority in the Georgia House. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has launched an investigation into the error. Maybe Democrats can agree that we should now go to ALL PAPER BALLOTS?
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) November 7, 2026
The secretary said the investigation will ask why the memory card was missed and whether Seminole County officials followed procedures. The discrepancy turned up in a routine post-election review, not because a candidate demanded a new search.
I am glad Georgia’s checks caught this before certification. A House seat is not a rounding error, and 388 uncounted votes in a race this close would have been enough to seat the wrong person if no one had found them.
Why one rural seat matters
Democrats appear to have won the 180-member Georgia House for the first time in more than two decades. Before the memory card was found, they were counted as holding 93 seats, The Center Square reported. If Greene’s lead holds, that majority could be as narrow as a single vote.
A one-seat majority can organize the House, pick committee chairmen and decide which legislation reaches the floor.
Another nearby race is headed for a runoff. Republican Rep. Mike Cheokas received 47.88 percent in House District 151, Democrat Ethan Wolfe received 40.85 percent, and independent Travis Lockhart received 11.26 percent. Georgia law requires more than 50 percent to win outright.
The results remain unofficial until the county certifies them.
The bottom line
Every legal vote should be counted, including the ones that sat on a memory card until a state review found them. Raffensperger is right to call the failure unacceptable and to investigate how it happened. The safeguards worked this time. That is a reason to keep them, not a reason to pretend sloppy tabulation is harmless.
Democrats will take this as a painful near miss on their way to organizing the chamber. Republicans should treat it as proof that close races can still be decided by basic competence in the county office.
Monday’s local certification should be done in public, with a clear account of those 388 ballots. If Greene holds the seat, he will have won it because the votes were finally uploaded, not because anyone invented a new result.