Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday morning that the state would be conducting a manual hand recount of all ballots cast in the presidential race.
The announcement comes as GOP members continue to cry foul over President Donald Trump’s loss of electoral votes.
“With the margin being so close, it will require a full by hand recount in each county,” Raffensperger said at a press conference in Atlanta. “This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvas all at once.”
According to Raffensperger, the current margin of votes between President-elect Biden and President Trump is 14,111.
On Tuesday, the Trump campaign and Georgia Republican Party sent Raffensperger a letter requesting a manual hand recount of all ballots cast in the state. The alleges voting discrepancies and statewide errors — but did not give any proof of such claims.
Raffensperger denies the recount is due to pressure from Trump’s camp, or because of calls from the GOP for him to resign from his position.
“We’re doing this because it’s really what makes the most sense,” he said. “With the national significance of this race, and the closeness of this race, we have to run a statewide audit.”
Raffensperger was also express his confidence in local officials and how the intial count was conducted.
“They and their staff are the ones that do the hard work on the ground of making sure that all legal votes will be counted,” Raffensperger said. “Their job is hard, they executed their responsibilities, and they did their job. These men and women, and my office, will continue to follow the law and count every legal vote.”
He added: “My office will continue to investigate each and every instance of illegal voting, double voting, felon voting, people voting out of state. We have all worked hard to bring fair and accurate counts to ensure that the will of the voters is reflected in the final count and that every voter will have confidence in the outcome whether their candidate won or lost.”
