The Secretary of State of Georgia, Republican Brad Raffensperger, has certified this Friday the victory of the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, in the state, a day after completing a manual audit of the more than five million ballots cast during election day.
“The numbers do not lie. As Secretary of State, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct,” Raffensperger said during a press conference, while indicating that the figures “reflect the verdict of the votes.”
Biden won in Georgia by a margin of 12,284 votes over incumbent President Donald Trump, a 0.3 percent lead. It is the first time a Democrat has won victory in Georgia since 1992.
Raffensperger has taken on members of the Republican Party for defending the accuracy of the vote count in Georgia. According to him, Republicans have tried to pressure him to ditch legal votes, in an effort to tilt the election race in Trump’s favor.
During the press conference, reported by the newspaper ‘The Hill’, the Secretary of State of Georgia declared himself a “proud supporter of Trump” and acknowledged his disappointment at his defeat, although he reiterated his confidence in the count.
With the confirmation of the 16 electoral votes of the state of Georgia for Biden, the Democratic candidate and president-elect would have 306 votes, far ahead of the 270 needed and the 232 that Trump would have achieved. The current president has not recognized his defeat or the electoral results and has pointed to a “fraud” committed in the elections.
