Why Georgia could be heading for yet another recount
State law permits candidates to request a recount of ballots if the margin is less than 0.5 per cent – even though there has already been a by-hand audit
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Your support makes all the difference.Georgia is set to carry out another recount of its presidential election results, after President Donald Trump’s campaign team submitted a request at the weekend.
The Republican secretary of state for Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, declared president-elect Joe Biden the winner in the state on Friday after he won the race by 12,670 votes, the equivalent of a 0.25 per cent lead.
Georgia had already conducted an audit of the presidential ballots, meaning all approximately five million ballots in the race were counted a second time by hand – before delivering the formal certification of victory to Mr Biden. That process was a formality given the tightness of the result, ordered by state officials.
But the law in Georgia also states that candidates themselves can request a recount if the margin is still less than 0.5 per cent. The campaign teams had a window of two business days from Friday’s certification to submit their requests.
"Because the margin is still less than 0.5 per cent, the President can request a recount after certification of the results. That recount will be conducted by rescanning all paper ballots," Mr Raffensperger had said in a statement on Friday after the audit of the presidential results in the state had been completed.
"Today, the Trump campaign filed a petition for a recount in Georgia. We are focused on ensuring that every aspect of Georgia State Law and the US Constitution is followed so that every legal vote is counted. President Trump and his campaign continue to insist on an honest recount in Georgia, which has to include signature matching and other vital safeguards," the Trump campaign said in a statement.
The by-hand audit is not considered an official recount, despite being a more rigorous and time-consuming process. The recount called for by the Trump campaign will be quicker, and simply involve a machine rescanning all paper ballots.
Mr Biden’s campaign team said it had confidence in the ballot counting process.
"Last week's recount reaffirmed what we already knew: Georgia voters selected Joe Biden to be their next president. As the secretary of state said, there is no reason to believe there are widespread errors or fraud and the Trump campaign has no evidence to back up their baseless claims," said Jaclyn Rothenberg, the Georgia communications director for Mr Biden's campaign. "Any further recount will simply reaffirm Joe Biden's victory in Georgia a third time."
Campaign law expert Jonathan Diaz told CNN that "no recount is going to change" the margin of more than 12,000 votes. "There's no real point in them doing so, other than to continue to drag out this process and cause further delays," Mr Diaz said. "It is kind of nonsense," he said of the recount request. "The war is over."
As of now, recounts and court contests over presidential election results are to be resolved before 8 December. But Matt Morgan, the Trump campaign’s general counsel was quoted earlier in November by the Associated Press, as saying that they were seeking to halt the certification process until they can get a better handle on where the vote tallies are in the states and whether they would have the right to automatic recounts.
“Our legal strategy is to proceed to bring resolution to any of our issues prior to final certification,” Mr Morgan had said.
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