Georgia election officials on Monday certified the results of the state’s presidential race after a recount requested by President Trump found his Democratic rival Joe Biden had won the once reliably red state.
“We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the results remain unchanged,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a morning news conference.
State law allows a losing candidate to ask for a recount if the margin between the candidates is less than 0.5%.
Trump asked for a recount after the first set of results showed Biden leading by a margin of 12,670 votes or 0.25% of the 5 million votes cast in Georgia.
Once recertified, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, will have to recertify the state’s 16 presidential electors.
The latest recount was the third in the state. Following the initial count on Election Day, Raffensperger, also a Republican, chose to audit the presidential race. The tight margin meant the audit required the state’s 5 million votes to be recounted by hand. The hand count also resulted in a Biden win.
Trump, who was in Georgia over the weekend to headline a rally for Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, spent the majority of his time claiming that he had been cheated out of a win.
Trump also verbally called out Kemp and Raffensperger for not having the “courage” to do what he claimed was right.
“I know there are people that are convinced the election was fraught with problems, but the evidence, the actual evidence, the facts tell us a different story,” Raffensperger said.
Trump, still refusing to accept that he lost, tweeted: “The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?”
The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2020
Raffensperger has said that not only is it entirely possible to match signatures, but that state law requires it.
The results of the recount came on the same day a federal judge in Georgia dismissed a lawsuit filed by former Trump attorney Sidney Powell who had sought to overturn Trump’s election loss.
Lawyers for Georgia’s election officials mocked Powell’s voter fraud allegations in a court filing, describing them as belonging “more to the Kraken’s realm of mythos than they do to reality.”
Last month, Powell promised to “release the Kraken,” referring to legal moves that would reveal widespread voter fraud.
Monday’s Georgia dismissal and a similar rejection in Michigan are serious setbacks to Trump’s last-ditch efforts to deny Biden a win when the Electoral College meets next week.
