By Jack Phillips
Vote-counting efforts in the state to be finished Tuesday or Wednesday.
Georgia’s vote-counting efforts will be done either on Tuesday or Wednesday, and the state is headed to a likely recount, said an official with Georgia’s secretary of state office.
Gabriel Sterling, a spokesman for the office, said in a news conference on Monday that 47 out of 112 counties have certified their election results. All counties’ results have to be certified by Friday, Nov. 12, and after that, the state will have to certify its results by Nov. 20, according to state law.
“We are going to find that people did illegally vote, there are going to be double voters, and people that did not meet the qualifications to be a registered voter to vote in this state. That will be found,” Sterling said. He didn’t elaborate on the margin of victory.
The presidential race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden is razor-thin, with Biden leading Trump by 10,646 votes in the state. Numerous media outlets have called the entire election for Biden, including in Georgia.
“Anybody who has been [in Georgia] knows none of this was sudden,” Sterling said. “None of this is really overly surprising … and I don’t think you can say it was a massive flip with Biden leading by 10,000 plus votes.
Sterling said that officials are investigating people who voted twice or voted illegally in some way.
The Georgia secretary of state’s office said 7,786 provisional ballots from military members didn’t come back in time, adding that the state had no issues with Dominion Software.
It comes as the two Republican senators representing Georgia called for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to step down.
“The management of Georgia elections has become an embarrassment for our state. Georgians are outraged, and rightly so. We have been clear from the beginning: every legal vote cast should be counted. Any illegal vote must not. And there must be transparency and uniformity in the counting process,” a statement from Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) said.
“There have been too many failures in Georgia elections this year and the most recent election has shined a national light on the problems. While blame certainly lies elsewhere as well, the buck ultimately stops with the Secretary of State. The mismanagement and lack of transparency from the Secretary of State is unacceptable. Honest elections are paramount to the foundation of our democracy. The Secretary of State has failed to deliver honest and transparent elections. He has failed the people of Georgia, and he should step down immediately,” the statement continued.
