[ad_1]
For the first time in decades, Georgia was a crucial pivotal state in the presidential race.
A week after the election between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Trump, Georgia’s results are still pending, with the candidates both hoping to claim the state’s 16 electoral votes.
With 99% of the ballots counted, Biden held a slim lead of around 14,108 votes on Wednesday, according to Fox News projections. But given the slim margin, election officials said on Wednesday the state would audit the election and hand-recount the nearly 5 million votes cast.
“With the margin so close, it will take a full manual recount in every county,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said at a press conference in Atlanta. “It will help build confidence.”
The success of Biden in Georgia, which has not voted to elect a Democrat as president since 1992, has been underscored by his support in the state’s largest cities, while Trump has seen major gains in the areas rural – part of a larger demographic trend.
For example, Biden’s victory over Trump in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, is expected to be five percentage points higher than Hillary Clinton’s four years ago. The Democratic standard-bearer also saw deeper support than Clinton, the 2016 candidate, in suburban Atlanta north, including Gwinnett, Cobb, Douglas, Clayton and DeKalb counties.
Biden also added to Clinton’s margins in some of Georgia’s other cities, including the suburbs of Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah and Athens.
At the same time, voters in rural areas, particularly in southern Georgia and the Piedmont region, continued to run in large numbers for Trump.
Demographic shifts and increased voter turnout also played a role in the suddenly tight presidential race: in 2019, the population grew to 10.6 million from 6.9 million in 2000, according to the New York City. Times. The state’s foreign-born population now represents more than 10% of the total population. In 2004, 70% of voters were white, according to exit polls. This year, white voters made up 60%.
The Peach State will be in the limelight again later this year with a pair of turns in January that will determine which party controls the Senate.
Republicans hold a slim Senate majority of 53-47, but after Tuesday’s election the GOP is up 50-48. That means the Democrats would have to win both rounds in Georgia to secure a 50-50 draw. In this scenario, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could vote to advance the Democratic agenda.
[ad_2]
Source link