The results of Georgia's first-ever risk-limiting audit, which entailed counties recounting by hand every vote cast in the presidential race, reaffirmed that President-elect Joe Biden is the. ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia ’s secretary of state on Wednesday announced an audit of presidential election results that he said would be done with a full hand tally of ballots because the margin is so.

ATLANTA, Ga. (CW69 News at 10) — During a press conference on December 30, 2020, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation unveiled what they discovered during an audit of over 15,000 Cobb County absentee ballot signatures.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had requested GBI’s assistance with the audit to look into accusations elections workers did not accurately match signatures before the June Primary Election.

An audit of voter signatures on absentee ballot envelopes found zero cases of fraud among 15,000 reviewed, according to a report released by the Georgia secretary of state's office Tuesday. A A The results of Georgia's signature verification audit should be released either Wednesday or Thursday, Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday, adding that he's 'very confident' in the process. 'The law in Georgia is that the secretary of state has the constitutional authority,' Kemp told Fox News' 'Fox & Friends.'

“The results of that audit confirmed the accuracy of the initial determination of the Cobb County Election Department in all but two cases,” said GBI Director Vic Reynolds. That’s two cases out of the more than 15,000 random envelopes they audited on December 21 and 22. “Those two ballots were counted, and they should not have been,” he said. “The Cobb Elections Department should have notified those individuals.”

In those two cases, a voter’s spouse had signed the envelope, and another voter had signed theirs in the wrong place. Investigators also say there were no fraudulent absentee ballots. “The Cobb Board of Elections had a 99.99% accuracy rate in the absentee ballot oath envelopes that we audited,” Reynolds said.

Investigators explained the process and how they compared the signatures on a random set of envelopes with the ones in the voter registration system. “You’re comparing similarities in letter shapes, numbers, flourishes and the slant of the signatures,” said GBI Special Agent In Charge Bahan Rich.

The Secretary of State’s Office has said it will continue investigating any voter fraud claims. “We are following up on all of the affidavits that have been provided,” said the office’s chief investigator, Frances Watson.

The investigations continue as election workers brace for Georgia’s January 5th Runoff Election.

Second Georgia county finds thousands of uncounted ballots

Georgia GOP chairman Luke Martin has the latest on the recount efforts in the Peach State on 'The Story'

More than 3,000 uncounted ballots turned up in Georgia as the state is conducting an audit of the 2020 presidential election.

As the hand-tallying continues, officials in Fayette County unearthed 2,755 ballots that had not been included in the original count.

'There was an issue where we noticed there were more people on the absentee ballot filed for voting in person in Fayette County than was in the actual reporting,' Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling said, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. 'It was discovered today for certain. Because of the audit, we found this.'

Sterling said the problem was the result of several individuals not following the proper procedures.

An additional 284 ballots were found in Walton County. The local Board of Elections chair, Lori Wood, told the Walton Tribune the problem was due to votes being previously uploaded from only one of the two ballot scanners in a precinct.

'We would have discovered it,' Wood said. 'Maybe not this week, but we would have discovered it.'

The Walton County ballots boosted President Trump's lead in the heavily Republican county by 176 votes.

Georgia Ballot Signature Audit Results

The recent findings follow the discovery of more than 2,600 ballots in Floyd County that had not been counted. At the time, Floyd County Republican Party chair Luke Martin called the mishap “concerning” but insisted that it “doesn’t appear to be a widespread issue.”

Cobb County election officials handle ballots during an audit, Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

After the Fayette County discovery, Martin pointed to a lack of sufficient observation of the counting process in parts of the state as a possible reason for why no one caught mistakes.

'If this was human error and the Board of Elections allowed the parties, allowed the public to view the counting of the ballots, we could have seen that. But we didn't get the opportunity to be there,' Martin told Fox News' 'The Story' Tuesday.

The state is also conducting an investigation of Fulton County's election management.

Georgians in 159 counties cast nearly 5 million ballots in the presidential election, according to the secretary of state's office.

Unless additional uncounted ballots are found during the audit, it does not appear that the audit will result in a change in the state's election result as President-elect Joe Biden had been leading by approximately 14,000 votes. Sterling said the updated count in Fayette County trimmed the lead to just under 13,000.

If the audit were to end up with Trump winning the state, he would still only have 248 electoral votes, with Biden remaining at 290.

Results Of Georgia Vote Audit

Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.