Georgia recount confirms Biden victory over Trump, says state election official

A recount in the battleground state of Georgia has confirmed Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump, another blow to the president who continues to refuse to concede defeat more than two weeks after election day. 

Officials in the southern state had announced they were recounting 5 million of the ballots cast, after a request from the Trump campaign, and after secretary of state Brad Raffensperger initially said the vote was “too close to call”.

Yet although officials spent six days recounting 5 million of the ballots, there had been widespread anticipation Mr Biden would hold on to the narrow lead over Mr Trump, and secure the first victory in the Peach State for a Democratic contender since 1992. 

As it is, reports suggested that Mr Biden’s lead over Mr Trump will be cut to 12,800 from the previous tally of 14,000. This was because of the discovery of 2,500 ballots in Floyd County that had not been scanned.

Gabriel Sterling, who oversaw the implementation of the state's new voting system, told reporters that once the state certified the results, the losing campaign had two business days to request a recount if the margin remained within 0.5 per cent.

That opportunity would therefore appear to be available to the Trump campaign, given the razor narrow margin of Mr Biden’s victory, after around 5 million votes were cast by voters in the state, which carries 16 electoral college votes.

While many had anticipated that Mr Biden would hold on to his lead, the recount uncovered some troubling discrepancies. Reports said that four counties in the state found new ballots during the recount that had not been included in the original tally. 

On Thursday, officials in Floyd County voted to fire the county's chief elections clerk, Robert Brady, and he was terminated.

Despite the results having been expected, the confirmation that Mr Biden has held on to Georgia further narrows the options for Mr Trump, who has claimed without evidence he has been a victim of electoral fraud, and refused to acknowledge Mr Biden as president-elect.

On Thursday, Mr Biden, who appeared with vice president elect Kamala Harris at a press conference in Delaware, said he was concerned Mr Trump’s delaying of the transition process could hamper the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, which has spiked once again in many parts of the country.

“Unfortunately, my administration hasn't been able to get everything we need,” Mr Biden said during a video conference with the National Governors Association's leadership team, which consists of five Republicans and four Democrats.

Mr Biden, who beat Mr Trump 306 - 232 in the electoral college and by around 5 million in the popular vote, later added: “What the president's doing now is going to be another incident where he will go down in history as being one of the most irresponsible presidents.”

There was no official word on Thursday from the Trump campaign as to what it planned to do after the developments in Georgia. However, after Republican congressman Jody Hice tweeted that “As more votes are uncovered in Georgia, this race has continued to narrow” , Mr Trump retweeted the post and added: “So true. Thanks Jody!”

Despite Mr Trump’s claims that he has been the victim of fraud and his decision to try and use the courts to stop Mr Biden’s victory, both Republican and Democratic officials overseeing the election said there was no evidence of such.

Mr Raffensperger, who is Republican, told the Washington Post he had been pressured by Republican senator Lindsay Graham to discount some of the votes to be counted. Mr Graham has denied this. Mr Raffensperger also said he and his family had received death threats.

Georgia is going to remain in the spotlight. Two Senate races that were not decided on election and instead will go to a 5 January run off, will determine whether Democrats or Republicans will control the Senate. Mr Biden would desperately love to have both the House and the Senate backing him when he enters the Oval Office. 

Additional reporting by agencies