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Georgia expected to release results of hand recount of presidential election today

Georgia expected to release results of hand recount of presidential election today
Posted at 6:14 AM, Nov 19, 2020
and last updated 2020-11-19 11:38:58-05

Election officials in Georgia are expected to release a report that details the results of a hand recount of the 2020 presidential election on Thursday, a report that's expected to confirm President-elect Joe Biden narrowly defeated President Donald Trump in the state.

The recount — which was prompted by a state law and is not connected to any suspected fraud — was ordered last week by Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger.

Counties were required to report the results of their hand recount by 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday night. The Associated Press reports that Gabriel Sterling, the voting system implementation manager in the state, said he expects a report on the recount to be released by mid-day Thursday.

Georgia is the final state that The Associated Press has not yet called for either candidate.

Prior to the recount, Biden held a lead of about 14,000 votes statewide. While a handful of counties have reported that the hand recount found a few Trump votes that had not been counted, the new tally is only expected to shift the vote count by a few hundred votes.

On Wednesday, DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond directly disputed an allegation of a "vote error" levied by State Republican party chairman David Shafer. While Shafer alleged that the error affected the count by more than 9,000 votes, Thurmond called the claim "unsubstantiated."

Even in the unlikely event that Georgia would swing to Trump, Biden would still have the 270 electoral college votes needed to claim the presidency.