US Election: Georgia audit to trigger hand recount of votes

An audit of US presidential election results in Georgia will trigger a full hand recount, state officials have announced.

Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said at a news conference on Wednesday that his office wants the process to begin by the end of the week and he expects it to take until November 20.

After results from the hand recount are certified, the losing campaign can then request another recount, which will be performed by machine, Mr Raffensperger said.

Picture credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

President-elect Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by about 14,000 votes out of nearly five million that have been counted in the state. Nearly all ballots have been counted, though counties have until Friday to certify their results.

Once county certification is complete and before the state certifies the results, the count must be audited. It is up to Mr Raffensperger to choose which race to audit.

Mr Raffensperger chose to audit the presidential race and said the tight margin means that the audit will result in a full hand recount.

Asked if he chose the presidential race because of the Trump campaign's call for a hand recount, Mr Raffensperger said: "No, we're doing this because it's really what makes the most sense with the national significance of this race and the closeness of this race."

Mr Raffensperger said the process will have "plenty of oversight", with both parties having the opportunity to observe.

The audit is a new requirement put in place by a law passed in 2019 that also provided for new voting machines purchased last year.

Reporting by PA

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.