Recount Trims Biden’s Lead In Georgia By Over 1,000 Votes

Topline

A hand recount of Georgia’s presidential race turned up more than 5,000 previously unreported votes on Monday and Tuesday, narrowing President-elect Joe Biden’s lead in the state to just under 13,000 votes, though officials have not identified any major problems that could overturn President Donald Trump’s projected loss in Georgia.

Key Facts

Crucial Quote

“In every single election in the history of mankind, there will be illegal votes cast,” Sterling said earlier Tuesday. “We have seen nothing that indicates that there is such a high percentage [of illegal votes] that it would change the outcome of the vote.”

Key Background

Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by a slim enough margin to prompt a full audit and hand recount. This process is unlikely to tip the race in Trump’s favor, however, because statewide recounts have historically changed the margins of a race by dozens or hundreds of votes, not the tens of thousands Trump will need to overtake Biden. Still, as Trump refuses to concede to Biden and promotes evidence-free conspiracy theories about voter fraud, his allies have treated the recount as an opportunity to recover from defeat by exposing supposed troves of illegal votes. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff, including Sterling, have defended the election as fundamentally fair, and have worked to debunk some of the viral misinformation about vote-rigging in their state.

Tangent

Raffensperger, a Republican, has faced pressure from members of his own party to somehow alter the recount process in Trump’s favor. Trump and his team have repeatedly denigrated him, and Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R) and David Perdue (R) unsuccessfully urged him to resign, citing unspecified management issues. Most notably, Raffensperger claimed Monday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) implied he should find a way to throw out legal mail-in ballots, an allegation Graham denied. Raffensperger, for his part, believes Trump’s loss in Georgia is due to his criticism of mail-in voting, which may have depressed turnout.

Further Reading

Nearly 2,800 more votes found as Georgia recount nears end (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)