GEORGIA’S secretary of state announced on Thursday that the state’s hand recount has confirmed Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election there – while a judge dismissed a “fraud” lawsuit brought by Republicans in the state.
The hand tally of roughly five million votes was prompted by an audit required by a new state law – and not in response to any discrepancies of the states results or an official recount request.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the results of the hand count audit, which he said “upheld and reaffirmed” the original outcome of the November 3 election.
The result show Biden took the Peach State from President Donald Trump by nearly 13,000 votes
The Associated Press officially called Georgia for Biden moments after Raffensperger’s announcement.
Georgia officials have until Friday to certify results that have been certified and submitted by counties.
Hours after the recount was called, the Trump campaign slammed news outlets for “falsely reporting” Biden’s win in Georgia.
The president has called on the state to hold off on certifying its election results, claiming that “illegal ballots” had been included in the final total.
“Headlines are already falsely reporting that Joe Biden is declared the winner in Georgia,” the Trump campaign said in a statement on Thursday.
“Sorry, media, that’s not how it works.”
Counties were supposed to be finish the hand tally by 11.59pm on Wednesday.
Once the state certifies the election results, the losing campaign has two business days to request a recount if the margin stays within 0.5 percent.
The recount would be done with scanners that read and tally the votes, and would be paid for by the counties, according to state election official Gabriel Sterling.
Going into the hand count, Biden led Trump by about 14,000 votes.
The previously uncounted ballots discovered during the hand tally cut Biden’s margin to about 12,800, Sterling said.
The recount results came as a federal judge in Georgia rejected election-related lawsuits from Republicans and the Trump administration.
The judge – a Trump appointee – called the attempt by GOP-allied lawyers to block election results “quite striking” and refused their attempt to stop Biden’s win in the state, according to CNN.
Despite pledges by Trump campaign attorneys – including Rudy Giuliani – to push on with the legal fight, few options remain that could rob Biden of the electoral votes needed to become president.
Giuliani false claimed on Thursday that billionaire George Soros, the Clintons, and China are behind Biden’s presidential victory.
The presidential race has been repeatedly called for Biden since November 7 and he has amassed 306 electoral votes – the same number Trump won against Hillary Clinton in 2016 – but Trump has refused to concede.