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Joe Biden won the United States elections with a majority of 279 votes in the electoral college. However, scrutiny continues in several states, including Georgia, with Biden and Trump facing very tight margins.
Currently, Biden is just 0.51 percent, or 12,566 votes, ahead of Trump in Georgia, but with more than 99 percent of the ballots written, the president-elect appears to win the state.
However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that there will be a recount of the ballots in Georgia, after Biden claimed victory in the state by such a narrow margin.
Results, maps and analysis of the US elections.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said: “At this time, Georgia is still too close to call. Out of approximately 5 million votes cast, we will have a margin of a few thousand. With such a small margin, there will be a count in Georgia. “
Fulton County, the largest in the state and home to Atlanta, appears to be leaning the state for Biden. Trump had been leading the election night, but Biden won a large majority in this county via mail in votes, with a margin of more than 236,140 votes in the final count.
Clayton County is also responsible for the Democrats’ advantage. While several Georgia counties sent poll workers home overnight, accountants in Clayton worked until morning.
Typically blue-leaning Gwinnett County is expected to remain blue, reinforcing Biden’s leadership in the state.
Gabriel Sterling, an election official, said it would “take time” to process tens of thousands of remaining ballots. As many as 8,000 overseas ballots from service members could still arrive.
What has Trump claimed?
In the early hours of November 4, Trump prematurely claimed that he was leading to Georgia and several other states that it was too early to call.
“It’s … of course we’ve won Georgia. We are up 2.5 percent, or 117,000 (votes) with only seven percent (of the votes) left to count, “Trump said during a morning appearance at the White House.
The Trump campaign and the Georgia Republican Party filed the complaint against the Chatham County Board of Elections on Nov. 4 in an attempt to stop voting.
Sean Pumphrey, a Republican poll watcher, alleged that he had witnessed the illegal addition of 53 unprocessed late absentee ballots to a pile of processed absentee ballots that would be tabulated in Chatham County.
Ballots must be received by 7 pm on Election Day to be counted in accordance with state law.
The Trump campaign argued: “Failure to ensure that absentee ballots received after the deadline are stored in a manner that ensures that such ballots are not inadvertently or intentionally counted, as required by Georgia law, harms the interests of the Trump Campaign and President Trump because it could lead to the dilution of legal votes cast in support of President Trump. ”
Although this was alleged, Mr. Pumphrey did not provide evidence of misconduct.
Pumphrey also admitted that he did not know if the raw ballots were late after 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Sabrina German, director of the Chatham County Voter Registration Office, backed up the board witness testimony that the votes were received on time.
On Thursday, November 5, the case was dismissed by Judge James Base without giving an explanation of his decision at the one-hour hearing.
Read more: What happens if Donald Trump refuses to relinquish the 2020 presidency?
What’s Happening in the Georgia Senate Race?
Both Senate races in Georgia will be decided in a special second round on January 5, 2021, which will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the upper house of Congress.
No candidate for the two state seats was able to reach 50 percent of the votes needed to win a Senate seat.
Republicans have won 49 seats and Democrats have 48, but need 51 for a majority. Although Alaska has yet to be summoned, it is run by a Republican candidate and is likely to win. This means that if Democrats win both seats in Georgia in 2021, the Senate will be tied 50-50.
In this circumstance, Vice President Kamala Harris effectively becomes Senator 101 and decides the playoffs, which would give Democrats complete legislative control of Congress. But if Republicans win just one of the seats in Georgia, Joe Biden faces an uphill battle to pass his legislative agenda through a Republican chamber.
The first race in Georgia took place between current Republican David Perdue, 70, a businessman first appointed to the Senate in 2014, and Democrat Jon Ossoff, 33, a former investigative journalist.
Senator Perdue won 48.9 percent and Mr. Ossoff 47.9 percent, with 99 percent of the votes counted.
Georgia’s second Republican senator Kelly Loeffler received 25.9 percent of the vote and her rival, Democrat Raphael Warnock, received 32.9 percent.
They were the top two finishers in a crowded field that also included Republican Rep. Doug Collins. But no candidate was able to get the 50 percent threshold necessary to win completely.
Ms. Loeffler, 49, a wealthy businesswoman, was appointed last year to replace outgoing Senator Johnny Isakson.
The candidate recently tweeted in support of Trump’s calls to “count all legal votes” and promised to introduce a bill that would “increase penalties for those who attempt to interfere with the will of the American people.”
Warnock, 51, is trying to become Georgia’s first black US senator. The reverend is pastor of the Atlanta church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached.
Demographic changes
Georgia is not an obvious Democratic country. This is the deep south. No Democrat has taken over the state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton 28 years ago.
Georgia joined the Confederacy when it separated from the Union. He is deeply religious and deeply conservative. For decades it has been more red than red.
But now the cracks are showing. The polls had Biden and Trump shoulder to shoulder in the state, but Biden has gained the upper hand.
Biden has overtaken Trump in urban areas in Georgia, such as the state capital of Atlanta.
