Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Friday that the narrow margin between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden in the state means the race is headed for a recount.
“Right now, Georgia remains too close to call. Out of approximately 5 million votes cast, we’ll have a margin of a few thousand,” Mr. Raffensperger said. “With a margin that small, there will be a recount.”
With 99% of the estimated vote in, Mr. Biden led Mr. Trump by about 1,600 votes out of close to 4.9 million total votes cast for the two candidates.
A recount can be requested in Georgia if there’s a margin of 0.5% or less of the total votes cast for the office.
The Trump campaign had indicated earlier Friday that Georgia was headed for a recount and predicted victory for the president when all the votes were counted.
If Mr. Biden’s lead holds in Georgia and other states like Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, he would surpass the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.
Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, said that as of 10 a.m. Friday, there were a little under 5,500 votes left to be counted in Gwinnett, Floyd, Cherokee and Cobb counties.
He said there were 8,890 military ballots outstanding that will be counted if they were returned by close of business Friday.
“In some states, there are complaints about monitors not being allowed to watch the count,” he said. “In Georgia, this process is and will remain open and transparent to monitors. If any member of the public raises legitimate concerns, we’ll investigate those.”
There were also two U.S. Senate races in Georgia this year, both of which appear to be headed for runoffs in January after no candidate could top 50% of the vote based on what’s been counted so far.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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