Georgia certifies election results after recount, making Biden win official
Nov 21, 2020
Washington [US], November 21 : Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has certified the result of the state's presidential results on Friday making President-elect Joe Biden's win official after a days-long hand recount.
"Numbers don't lie. As secretary of state, I believe the numbers that we have presented today are correct," The Hill quoted Raffensperger as saying. "The numbers reflect the verdict of the people," he added.
The confirmation comes as Georgia finished its statewide audit of the closely contested US Presidential elections.
Biden defeated Trump by a margin of 12,284 votes, according to the final results from the audit, which was a slight drop as compared to the pre-audit results, reported CNN.
Officials have said repeatedly that the audit confirmed that there was no widespread fraud or irregularities in the election.
According to CNN, the suburban revolt against Trump in the suburbs surrounding Atlanta, paired with a huge turnout among Black voters, powered Biden's gains in the state, building on years of intensive Democratic organizing to register voters.
The Biden campaign's communications director for Georgia, Jaclyn Rothenberg, said in a statement on Thursday evening that the recount outcome, "simply reaffirmed what we already knew: Georgia voters selected Joe Biden to be their next president".
Raffensperger, a Republican, has come under fire from members of his own party for defending the accuracy of the vote tally in Georgia. He alleged this week that Republicans had sought to pressure him to toss out legal ballots in an effort to swing the election in Trump's favour.
Speaking at a news conference, Raffensperger once again defended his handling of the election, insisting that the tallies reported by the state were accurate and that Biden stood as the clear winner.
"As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct," he said. "The numbers reflect the verdict of the people."
