Georgia completes hand audit of ballots, confirms Biden's victory

Georgia confirmed Democratic President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election in the state as it completed a hand audit of ballots on Thursday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

An audit was launched after unofficial results showed Biden leading Republican President Donald Trump by about 14,000 votes.

“The audit confirmed that the original machine count accurately portrayed the winner of the election,” the secretary of state’s office said in a statement on Thursday evening.

Raffensperger, a Republican, is expected to formally certify Biden’s victory on Friday, despite pressure from Trump, who has claimed without evidence that there were widespread irregularities and fraud in states that he lost to Biden, including Georgia.

Biden was the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Raffensperger told a local TV station that the Trump campaign had not produced evidence to back up its claims of fraud in the state.

“We have not seen any evidence they have given us, anything that supports - it just doesn’t show up,” Raffensperger told WSB-TV.

Trump’s campaign can still request a recount in Georgia after the results are certified because the margin of victory was less than 0.5%.