After a very grueling recount, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has officially declared President-Elect Joe Biden as the official winner of the 2020 Presidential Election in Georgia. The announcement comes as President Trump has sought to delegitimize the election results and pressured the secretary of state to not announce Biden the winner. It also comes as Georgia’s Republican U.S. Senate candidates, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has also asked the secretary of state to resign or throw out ballots to allow Trump to win.
On the evening of Thursday, November 19, Republican Secretary of State for Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, announced that President-Elect Joe Biden has won the longstanding Republican stronghold after conducting a statewide hand recount of over five million ballots. The recount affirmed Joe Biden the winner of Georgia and held a winning margin of 12,284 votes or 0.25 percent. (Donald Trump netted a gain of 1,872 votes due to human errors in some Republican counties.)
The recount was called for by President Trump, who denounced the results in Georgia after most major news organizations called the state for Joe Biden last week. He has made baseless accusations of voter fraud as part of a larger disinformation campaign to undermine the confidence of the American public in the integrity of the 2020 elections.
Under Georgia state law, the election results are required to be finalized and certified on Friday, and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will need to sign the paperwork by Saturday to grant Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to Joe Biden. Donald Trump has urged Kemp to “take charge” after it was obvious the recount wasn’t going to change much and encouraged him to “get tough” and make the state “flip Republican.” The governor’s office has remained quiet on these issues, but the paperwork is likely to be signed.
Raffensperger’s refusal to bow down to GOP officials has resulted in criticism from Trump and both of the state’s senators. Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, who are facing extremely tight races in the January runoffs, denounced Raffensperger and accused him of not delivering “honest and transparent elections,” while also asking him to resign.
However, Raffensperger has affirmed that the state has seen “no widespread voter fraud” and considers himself a “lifelong Republican” and a “conservative Christian Republican.” He said that he was “going to count every legal, lawful vote and we’re not going to count any illegal votes. My record will stand on itself. We have done a great job.” It is relieving that the secretary has chosen to stand on the side of honesty and delivering a fair election to the people of Georgia. Had he bowed down to the GOP’s unreasonable demands to change the outcome of the election, we would probably be seeing riots in the streets.
Officials said that the extra 5,800 votes found during the recount (netting Trump about 1,800 extra votes) were caused by human error and no vote-rigging or fraud was discovered. The recount should reaffirm the public’s confidence in a Biden win in Georgia and once again disproves the Trump administration’s baseless accusations and claims of voter fraud.
Make sure to check out the 2020 election coverage page for more.
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