Why don’t we have election results yet for Georgia? Here’s what we know
As Americans wait for election results from a handful of states, some are growing impatient with Georgia.
A win for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in Georgia would push him past 270 electoral votes — the number needed to win the presidency. President Trump is leading in the state by about 18,500 votes early Thursday, according to The Washington Post.
Results in Georgia are expected Thursday, Gabriel Sterling, voting system implementation manager for the secretary of state’s office, said in a press briefing Thursday morning.
“This is going to be an extremely close margin,” Sterling said.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a 10:15 p.m. update Wednesday the state was focused on accurately counting the votes and did not want to rush.
“Officials in numerous counties are continuing to count ballots, with strong security protocols in place to protect the integrity of our election,” said Raffensperger. “We have long anticipated – and said publicly – that counting would most likely take place into Wednesday night and perhaps Thursday morning. We’re on pace to accomplish that responsibly, ensuring that the voice of every eligible voter is heard. It’s important to act quickly, but it’s more important to get it right.”
About 60,000 absentee ballots in the state still needed to be counted as of 10:45 a.m., Sterling said in the morning update.
Fulton County, where Atlanta is located, still has 11,200 mail-in ballots to count. There are around 17,000 uncounted ballots in Chatham County, Sterling said. An additional 7,300 votes have not been counted in Gwinnett County and another 7,400 in Clayton County.
Biden would need to win about 65% of the remaining votes to take the lead, FiveThirtyEight reported. The political analysis site said the 14 states where there are still outstanding absentee ballots “are 19 points bluer than the state on average.”
A state monitor is watching over the Fulton County count, Raffensperger said, and the public can view the counting of ballots on YouTube.
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 9:56 AM with the headline "Why don’t we have election results yet for Georgia? Here’s what we know."