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Why is Georgia taking so long to count the remaining votes for the presidential election? According to CNN, there were only 47,000 votes left to be tallied in the state by Thursday afternoon. So when is the election going to be called in the state?
Gabriel Sterling, an election official in Georgia, offered some insight into this issue on Thursday. To reporters, Sterling said, “The effort here is to make sure that everybody’s … legal vote is counted properly. These close elections require us to be diligent and make sure we do everything right.” Per CBS, Sterling said officials were working to have all of the votes counted on Thursday. He also reiterated, “Having an accurate, fair count is much more vital than having a fast count.”
As of Thursday afternoon, Trump was ahead of Biden in Georgia by a mere 13,000 votes, with the remaining votes to be counted coming from Democratic stronghold areas of the state. Per CNN, the breakdown of remaining ballots includes the following: 17,000 or more ballots from Chatham County, 7,300 or more ballots from Fulton County and fewer ballots from a spattering of other counties.
Here’s what you need to know:
Live Election Results & Map Updates for the Presidential Race in Georgia
According to USA Today, 3.9 million Georgians voted early this year. That number comes close to the total number of ballots cast in the state in the 2016 election, which was approximately 4.1 million votes.
Black voters and Latino voters in particular turned out to vote in droves in Georgia: 124% of the total 2016 turnout for Black seniors had already been surpassed by Election Day, with over 239,000 Black voters over the age of 65 having participated in early voting. Additionally, Latino voters also surpassed their 2016 vote totals with early voting alone.
Georgia Does Not Have Any Additional Ballots Trickling in
Help get my friend @ossoff across the finish line, Georgia!
In early October, a federal appeals court reinstated a Georgia law that requires absentee ballots to be received by the end of the day on Election Day. That means that any ballots sent in after this date will not be counted.
For those who chose to vote in person on Election Day in Georgia, they likely didn’t have to wait for long to cast their vote. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that most Georgians only had to wait in line for an average of three minutes, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We are having a successful election in Georgia today,” Raffensperger said, per the publication. “That’s what everyone wants from government — they want it to be responsive to the people, and they want it to work. So we’ve made it work.”
Follow the 2020 Presidential Race Results Across the Country, as Electoral Votes Are Tallied
Heavy has partnered with Decision Desk HQ to bring you live presidential election results across the country. Here is the latest with the race to 270 electoral votes:
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