That's a bit dangerous
notable
Georgia governor certifies state’s 16 presidential electors after top elections official verifies results showing Biden won race against Trump
By KATE BRUMBACK
ASSOCIATED PRESS |
NOV 20, 2020 AT 5:50 PM
ATLANTA — Georgia’s governor and top elections official on Friday certified results showing Joe Biden won the presidential race over Republican President Donald Trump.
The certification brings the state one step closer to wrapping up an election that has been fraught with unfounded accusations of fraud by Trump and his supporters.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified results reported by the state’s 159 counties following a meticulous hand count of the 5 million ballots cast in the race. The results show Biden with 2.47 million votes, President Donald Trump with 2.46 million votes and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen with 62,138. That leaves Biden leading by a margin of 12,670 votes or 0.25%.
Later Friday, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp certified the state’s slate of 16 presidential electors, his spokesman Cody Hall said.
https://www.mcall.com/news/nation-world/ct-georgia-certifies-presidential-electors-biden-trump-20201120-k6dvugew2nflbcagm5sr3w6un4-story.html
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At a news conference, Kemp did not clearly endorse the results. Instead he stated that the law requires him to “formalize the certification, which paves the way for the Trump campaign to pursue other legal options and a separate recount if they choose.”
The Republican governor hasn’t stepped forward to defend the integrity of this year’s elections amid attacks by Trump and other members of his own party, who claim without evidence that the presidential vote in Georgia was tainted by fraud. Kemp has neither endorsed Trump’s fraud claims nor backed Raffensperger in his assertion that the election was conducted fairly.
Now that the results are certified, Trump’s campaign will have two business days to request a recount since the margin is within 0.5%. That recount would be done using scanning machines that read and tally the votes and would be paid for by the counties, the secretary of state’s office has said.
The hand count produced some slight differences from the previous machine tally, but no individual county showed a variation in margin larger than 0.73%, and the variation in margin in 103 of the state’s 159 counties was less than 0.05%, the secretary of state’s office said. During the audit, several counties discovered previously uncounted ballots and had to recertify their results.
It is the totals certified by the counties, not the results of the hand tally, that were certified by the state.
“It’s quite honestly hard to believe that during the audit thousands of uncounted ballots were found weeks after a razor-thin outcome in a presidential election,” Kemp said. “This is simply unacceptable.”
And now, a word from DailyBeast:
GA Gov Certifies Election, But Says Door Open for Trump Challenges
In brief remarks on Friday evening from Atlanta, Gov. Brian Kemp said that under state law he must certify Biden as the winner. But the Trump-backed Republican, who has faced immense pressure from the president and his base to generally do something about his election loss, coated that message in criticism for the election process and insisted the Trump campaign can still fight the result.
The certification of the result allows the Trump campaign to request a formal recount of votes, conducted by machine, and “other legal options” through that process, said Kemp. While Georgia elections officials have defended the integrity of the system in recent weeks, Kemp zeroed in on the fact that the audit found several thousand previously uncounted votes, a discovery that has outraged Trump supporters even though the new votes hardly moved the statewide margin of the race.
Calling it “completely unacceptable,” Kemp said Georgians “deserve better.”
The governor also suggested that electiontaint officials do more to match signatures on absentee ballots with signatures on file—a demand repeated by Trump and his allies—even as Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, has insisted the safeguards in place are stronger than ever.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ga-gov-brian-kemp-certifies-election-but-says-door-open-for-trump-challenges
Something tells me they were told to choose silver or lead.