Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the state was headed for a recount after Joe Biden pulled ahead of Donald Trump by about 1,500 votes.
Georgia, which has 16 electoral votes, swung toward the Democrat early Friday morning ending a lead that Trump had maintained since Tuesday.
There are still 4,169 mail ballots left, but they are mostly in Gwinnett County, an Atlanta suburb where votes have overwhelmingly favored Biden.
“With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia,” Raffensperger, a Republican, told reporters at a news conference. “Interest in our election obviously goes far beyond Georgia's borders. The final tally in Georgia at this point has huge implications for the entire country.”
Some ballots remain:
Along with the 4,169 mail ballots, the state said there are military and overseas ballots that could still be received through Friday and voters have until the end of the day on Friday to fix any mistakes that resulted in their ballots being flagged.
Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting system implementation manager, added that there have not been any reports of irregularities.
“We’re not seeing any widespread irregularities,” he said.
Senate race headed for run-off:
The Democratic surge in the count appears to have forced a recount in Sen. David Perdue’s race against Democrat Jon Ossoff.
Perdue leads by about a percentage point but his total has dipped below 50% to 49.8%. If he does not get 50% the race will go to an automatic run-off.
There is already a run-off between Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Randy Warnock.
Both races are expected to see investments of well over $100 million from both parties as they could decide control of the Senate in January.
