Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that the state will have a recount because of the slim margin between President Donald Trump and his opponent, Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
President Trump had a lead in Georgia on Election Day, but as the state counted mail-in ballots, Biden slowly gained ground. As of Friday (November 6), Biden pulled ahead by a few thousand votes. That left both candidates in a statistical tie, with 49.4% of the vote. There are about 4,200 absentee ballots left to count. A majority of those votes are in Gwinnett County, which includes the suburban communities around Atlanta.
Under Georgia state law, candidates can ask for a recount if the margin of victory is less than 0.5%.
“Right now, Georgia remains too close to call,” Raffensperger said during a press conference. “There will be a recount.”
Sterling said that a recount would likely take until the end of the month to complete.
Raffensperger pushed back against claims of voter fraud made by the Trump campaign.
“We’re not seeing any widespread irregularities,” he said.
Raffensperger promised that election officials were doing their due diligence to ensure all votes are counted and said he expects an unofficial tally of Georgia votes to be completed by the end of the weekend.
“The final tally in Georgia at this point has huge implications for the entire country. The stakes are high, and emotions are high on all sides. We will not let those debates distract us from our work. We will get it right, and we will defend the integrity of our elections.”
Photo: Getty Images