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ATLANTA – After six days of manual vote counting, the Georgia Secretary of State’s office confirmed Thursday that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the long-held state a republican stronghold.
The Trump campaign asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, for a full recount a week after the election ended on November 3. Raffensperger announced shortly after that all 159 counties would participate in a “risk limitation audit” that would include a manual count. The nearly five million vote audit was completed Thursday and confirmed Biden’s victory in the state by 12,284 votes.
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At a press conference earlier this Friday, the secretary of state presented himself as a “passionate conservative” and a “proud Trump supporter,” but said there was no question about the outcome.
– After working as an engineer all my life, I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie. As Secretary of State, I believe that the figures that we present today are correct. They reflect the verdict of the people, not a decision by the secretary of state, the courts or one of the campaigns, he said, indicating that there is no reason not to certify Biden’s victory.
Although the result was an expected conclusion, the recount came amid mounting tension over the election result. The New York Times and other American outlets projected Biden as a winner in Georgia last week. But Trump raised unsubstantiated allegations of fraud, and his allies, especially Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Republicans facing tough second-round contests in the state in January, discredited Raffensperger and accused him of mismanaging the election.
The audit process revealed some significant stumbling blocks in the first count, with four counties – Floyd, Fayette, Walton, and Douglas – discovering votes during the audit that were not part of the original count. Trump won in Floyd, Fayette, and Walton counties; Biden won in Douglas County.
On Thursday, the Floyd County Board of Elections voted unanimously to fire its chief elections secretary, Robert Brady, after officials found 2,600 ballots that were not counted prior to the county’s initial vote certification.
Most counties saw only small changes in their counts, with vote count totals differing by single digits. Patrick Moore, a lawyer for Biden’s campaign, predicted Wednesday that the results would show that “the president-elect won in Georgia.”
The state has until 7 pm on Friday to certify the outcome of the election. The Trump campaign then has two business days to request a second recount, which would be done with high-speed scanners.
