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A Gwinnett County election worker examines missing and provisional ballots at the Gwinnett Voter Registration and Elections Office on November 6, 2020 in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Jessica McGowan | Getty Images
Georgia will conduct a statewide recount of the ballots cast in the election between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said on Wednesday.
“With the margin being so close, it will take a full manual recount in every county,” Raffensperger said at a press conference.
Raffensperger, a Republican, said the state will work with county officials to complete the recount in time to meet the Nov. 20 deadline for statewide certification of election results.
“It will take all the time we have left, of course,” he said.
Raffensperger had previously telegraphed that a recount was likely in the state, which has traditionally voted for Republican presidential candidates. Trump supporters, including GOP Representative Doug Collins, earlier this week asked the Georgian official for a report on the results.
“It will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a reanalysis all at once,” Raffensperger said. “It will be a big job, but we will work with the counties to get it done in time for our state certification.”
Biden holds a lead of more than 14,000 votes in Peach State, according to NBC News analysis of the race. NBC has not called a projected winner in the state.
Trump, in the aftermath of the Nov. 3 election, falsely claimed that his campaign had “claimed, for the purposes of the election vote,” Georgia and other states. While Biden now plans to get more than the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency, Trump and his surrogates have already called for recounts in states such as Georgia and Wisconsin.
They also launched a wave of electoral fraud charges, without citing clear evidence. Lawyers for the Trump campaign have filed lawsuits in several key states related to the allegations. Many of these cases have already been dismissed by the judges.
In the meantime, Trump has refused to concede to Biden and falsely claims he won the election. The transition of power to a Biden administration cannot officially begin until the General Service Administration “determines” the winner, which it has so far refused to do.
Raffensperger told the press conference that at 1 p.m. ET he will declare that the presidential race in his state is subject to a “risk-limiting audit.”
“We will count every sheet of paper, every ballot. Every legal and legally cast ballot,” he said.
This is the latest news. Please come back for updates.
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