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Georgia began recounting its nearly 5 million hand votes on Friday after President Trump and the Republican Party demanded a statewide audit.
Despite the president’s unverified claims that widespread electoral fraud tainted the 2020 presidential election results, many news outlets have already declared former Vice President Joe Biden as the intended winner.
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According to the Fox News ruling office, Biden leads the president by 0.3%, or just over 14,000 votes in Georgia. The Associated Press has said it will not call the race yet because the organization has a habit of not doing so when a recount is necessary or likely.
If Biden emerges victorious, he will have won all 16 Peach State electoral votes – toppling a historically red southern battlefield.
State electoral recounts are carried out either when the margin of victory in a race is extremely slim, or when a candidate or party requests one after an election.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a press conference Wednesday, November 11, 2020 in Atlanta. Georgia election officials have announced an audit of the presidential election results that will trigger a full manual recount. (AP Photo / Brynn Anderson)
Laws governing recounts differ from state to state and some do not offer them at all, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Losing candidates, parties or voters are allowed to request a recount in 43 states and the District of Columbia.
Seven states do not have a requested recount process, and a few states require that the total votes for the top two candidates fall within a specific range in order for the loser to look for one.
Arizona and Tennessee require a court order to conduct a recount, and Massachusetts and Pennsylvania require a petition signed by a specified number of registered voters.
Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordered the recount as part of the state’s risk-limiting audit process. This is the first statewide narrative in the history of Georgia.
All 159 state counties and thousands of county and polling officers have a deadline of Wednesday, Nov. 18 at midnight to complete.
According to the New York Times, Dekalb and Fulton counties in the Atlanta metro area were not due to begin the process until Saturday.
Each ballot will be reviewed by auditors and, if deemed necessary, by a superintendent or even a bipartisan review committee.
Once the final results are submitted by the counties, Raffensperger will certify the statewide results by November 20 and submit them to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp – although Kemp is not involved in finalizing the results of the counties. state elections.
Nonetheless, the Trump campaign can still request a separate formal recount within two business days of state certification if Biden’s lead is less than half a percentage point. Election officials are expected to scan the millions of ballots again.
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The process – which is paid for by Georgian taxpayers – is open to the public.
Raffensperger assured The Times last week that the counts were legitimate.
Election officials would expect the end results to be similar, but not identical, to the initial tally.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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