Georgia Officials: 2nd Recount Also Shows Biden Won State

A second recount of the votes in Georgia confirmed that President-elect Joe Biden won the state, the top elections official said Monday.

The state will re-certify Biden’s victory in the state with the appointment of his 16 electors to the Electoral College on Monday, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said at a news conference in Atlanta.

President Donald Trump’s campaign had requested the votes be counted again after Georgia first certified its results on Nov. 20. State law allows for a recount if the margin between candidates is 0.5% or less.

The second recount involved putting ballots back through scanners. The more than 5 million ballots cast in the state on Nov. 3 had already been re-tallied by hand, in an audit intended to verify the accuracy of the machines.

Trump has claimed without evidence that he lost because of widespread voter fraud, in Georgia as well as other battleground states and has criticized the state’s Republican leadership.

The allegations have split the GOP in Georgia just weeks before a Jan. 5 runoff election that will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have criticized Raffensperger and demanded his resignation.

Trump has assailed both Raffensperger and the state’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp, a former ally, accusing both of not doing enough to overturn his defeat. The president’s supporters have also threatened Raffensperger, his wife, his staff and election workers with violence.

Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan have rejected Trump’s effort to pressure them into calling a special session of the state legislature to overturn the election results by appointing Trump backers to the Electoral College to compete with the slate of Biden electors based on the popular vote in the state.