In a joint statement, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, and House Speaker David Ralston stressed their concerns over the ongoing vote counting measures in the state.
“Free and fair elections are the foundation of our American government. Any allegations of intentional fraud or violations of election law must be taken seriously and investigated. We trust that our Secretary of State will ensure that the law is followed as written and that Georgia’s election result includes all legally-cast ballots — and only legally-cast ballots. We will continue to follow this situation to ensure a fair and transparent process."This comes after Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters that the state will conduct a recount given the razor-thin margin between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Trump.
"The focus for our office and for the county elections officials for now remains on making sure that every legal vote is counted and recorded accurately," Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger gave most of the time in his press conference to Gabriel Sterling, the voting systems implementation manager, who indirectly addressed a tweet by President Trump from this afternoon that referenced "missing military ballots," which is not true.
Sterling said 8,410 ballots are "still available to be received," which would be counted if they arrived by today and were postmarked on Election Day."I want to reemphasize this that does not mean there's a bucket of 8,410 votes ready to be counted," Sterling said. "They could've been postmarked on Tuesday and could've been received by elections officials today."
No word how many of the 13,000 provisional ballots statewide will be accepted. The tens of thousands of ballots yet to be counted is no longer the case with the final few being tabulated and an official total from officials coming soon.
Biden overtook Trump in Georgia's official count early Friday morning. As of 4:15 p.m. ET, the race is still deemed "too close to call" with the Democratic nominee's lead holding steady at 1,584 votes.