President-elect Joe Biden was projected the winner of Georgia’s 16 electoral votes a week ago, but this Friday, after a hand recount and a Trump supporter’s court case being knocked down by a Trump-appointed judge, the secretary of state’s office made it official. [Update: Or … announced that it will make it official within hours. The secretary of state’s office has put out a new, corrected press release saying that Biden has not yet been certified but will be by the 5 PM Friday deadline.]
Biden may win the state again, though. “With the certification,” the press release announcing the certification says, “the two-business-day time period begins for a candidate who lost by less than 0.5% of the vote to request a recount.”
Since Donald Trump is such a sore loser—and one with hopes of overturning the results of the election—that’s likely. That recount would be done by machines, though, so it should go quickly and without affecting the result. The other question left in Georgia is whether Gov. Brian Kemp will certify the state’s slate of electors, which he is supposed to do by 5 PM Saturday.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger noted his disappointment, as a Republican, that Trump lost the state, but said, “I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie.” Raffensperger has pushed back against significant pressure from his fellow Republicans to try to throw the election to Trump somehow.