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Officials in the southern state had announced they were counting 5 million of the votes cast, following a request from the Trump campaign, and after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger initially said the vote was “too close to call.”
Yet even though officials spent six days counting 5 million votes, there was a widespread expectation that Biden would maintain the narrow lead over Trump and secure the first Peach state victory for a Democratic contender since 1992.
As it stands, reports suggested that Biden’s lead over Trump will shrink to 12,800 from the previous tally of 14,000. This was due to the discovery of 2,500 ballots in Floyd County that had not been scanned.
Gabriel Sterling, who oversaw the implementation of the state’s new voting system, told reporters that once the state certified the results, the losing campaign had two business days to request a recount if the margin stayed within 0.5 percent. .
Thus, that opportunity would appear to be available to the Trump campaign, given Biden’s narrow margin of victory, after voters cast about 5 million votes in the state, which has 16 electoral college votes.
Pressure mounts on Trump ally Lindsey Graham over Georgia ballot call
While many had anticipated that Biden would maintain his leadership, the count uncovered some troubling discrepancies. Reports said that four counties in the state found new ballots during the count that had not been included in the original count.
On Thursday, Floyd County officials voted to fire the county’s chief elections clerk, Robert Brady, and he was fired.
Despite the expected results, the confirmation that Biden has clung to Georgia further reduces the options for Trump, who has claimed without evidence that he has been the victim of voter fraud and refused to recognize Biden as president-elect.
On Thursday, Biden, who appeared with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at a press conference in Delaware, said he was concerned that delaying Trump’s transition process could hamper the fight against the once-triggered coronavirus pandemic. more in many parts of the country.
“Unfortunately, my administration has not been able to get everything we need,” Biden said during a video conference with the leadership team of the National Association of Governors, which consists of five Republicans and four Democrats.
Biden, who beat Trump 306-232 in the electoral college and by about 5 million in the popular vote, later added: “What the president is doing now will be another incident where he will go down in history as one of the most irresponsible presidents. “
There was no official word from the Trump campaign on Thursday about what it planned to do after the events in Georgia. However, after Republican Congressman Jody Hice tweeted that “as more votes are discovered in Georgia, this race has continued to shrink,” Trump retweeted the post, adding, “Very true. Thanks Jody! “
Despite Trump’s claims that he has been the victim of fraud and his decision to try to use the courts to stop Biden’s victory, both Republican and Democratic officials who oversaw the elections said there was no evidence of such.
Raffensperger, who is a Republican, told the Washington Post he had been pressured by Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham to discount some of the votes to be counted. Mr. Graham has denied it. Raffensperger also said that he and his family had received death threats.
Georgia will continue to be the center of attention. Two Senate races that were not decided in the election and instead will go to a runoff on January 5, will determine whether Democrats or Republicans will control the Senate. Biden would desperately love to have both the House and Senate back him when he enters the Oval Office.
Additional agency reports
