GA Election Results: Glitches Delay Count, Demonstrations Set

Updated at 9:30 p.m. Friday

GEORGIA — The counting of long-awaited Gwinnett County votes was halted Friday night after the county said technical issues stopped election officials from processing more votes. While the state, and nation, waits for Georgia to declare a winner in the presidential election, demonstrations have been planned for Saturday in Atlanta.

Former Vice President Joe Biden's lead over President Donald Trump in Georgia continued to rise on Friday. So far, the race remains too close to call.

Biden's lead was 4,020 Friday night, according to the Secretary of State's Office. Trump had 49.34 percent of the vote, with 2.452 million votes, to Biden's 49.42 percent and 2.456 million votes.

CNN has reported Biden's lead increased to 4,395 at 9:25 p.m.; that may include absentee or provisional ballots not reflected on the state website.

Two election-related demonstrations are set for Saturday between noon and 1 p.m. in Atlanta. The two rallies will be "Count Every Vote," billed as a rally to support the election results, and "Stop The Steal," organized by a county Republican Party.

Gov. Brian Kemp urged state election officials to be transparent as the vote count continued in several counties Friday afternoon, and to investigate any allegations of election fraud. He urged transparency as Trump and his supporters try to sow doubt about election results in multiple states, including Georgia, although the campaign has produced no proof of widespread fraud.

Kemp issued a statement about the election, along with Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Speaker David Ralston.

“Free and fair elections are the foundation of our American government," the trio said. "Any allegations of intentional fraud or violations of election law must be taken seriously and investigated. We trust that our Secretary of State will ensure that the law is followed as written and that Georgia’s election result includes all legally cast ballots — and only legally cast ballots. We will continue to follow this situation to ensure a fair and transparent process."

Poll workers continued to count ballots on Friday, and some counties reported they may not be finished until this weekend.

With fewer than 2,000 votes separating Trump and Biden, a recount in Georgia seems likely, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a brief media appearance Friday afternoon.

"Right now, Georgia remains too close to call; out of the approximately 5 million votes cast, we'll have a margin of a few thousand," Raffensperger said.

The focus for election workers remains to "make sure every legal vote is counted and recorded," he added. "With a margin that small, there will likely be a recount in Georgia.”

Interest in whom Georgians selected for president and the U.S. Senate extends beyond the state and has far-reaching consequences. "We will get it right and defend the integrity of our election," Raffensperger said.

Related: Advocates Race To Find Georgia Voters Who Cast Bad Ballots

Roughly 4,000 ballots are still outstanding in Georgia, according to Gabriel Sterling, voting implementation manager in the secretary of state's office, during a news conference Friday morning. Votes are still outstanding are in Cherokee, Cobb, Floyd and Gwinnett counties, Sterling said, bringing the total outstanding ballots to 4,169.

Outstanding ballots as of 11 a.m. Friday were clustered in these counties:

• Cherokee County: 150
• Cobb County: 75
• Floyd County: 444
• Gwinnett County: About 3,500

"We've never had to handle this volume of paper before," Sterling said. "Normally, 5 percent of votes (in Georgia) are absentee ballots; this time it is one-third of votes."

Sterling likened the margin in Georgia to the size of "less than a large high school"; therefore, he anticipates that whoever loses the election will ask for a recount. However, Sterling said the election may not be decided for another two weeks, and a recount cannot happen until the election is certified, and could take five days.

WSB-TV reported that Matt Morgan, Trump 2020 campaign general counsel, said in a statement Friday morning: “This election is not over. ... Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will ultimately prevail.”

Morgan reiterated the president's talking points, which have so far had no evidence to back up his claims that ballots have been handled improperly in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania and other states. Election officials in those states, both Republicans and Democrats, have repeatedly said that the huge surge in mail-in ballots means more time is required to tally votes and that they could overshadow the number of people who voted at the polls on Nov. 3.

Friday is also the deadline to return military/overseas ballots, to verify provisional ballots and for voters to "cure" absentee ballots, WSB-TV reported. The secretary of state's office told the station that 17,000 have been returned and counted, but there are nearly 9,000 more that are eligible to be counted if they arrive by 5 p.m. Friday. Sterling said the department does not know how many military votes will come in, but he said it will be "more than zero, but less than 8,890 votes."

Votes from Clayton County were the only ones to be reported overnight, WSB-TV reported.

Related: Georgia U.S. Senate Race: Perdue, Ossoff Could Face Runoff

Both Georgia seats in the U.S. Senate appear headed to runoff elections, which one candidate said was due to strong voter registration efforts.

Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is trying to unseat GOP incumbent Sen. David Perdue, spoke to CNN at 12:30 a.m. Friday.

"It's clear that Georgia is the most competitive state in the county. It's not just me, it's also Rev. (Raphael) Warnock in the other race, that will determine the balance of power in the Senate," Ossoff said. "Voters are fed up with pandemic, fed up with politicians trying to take away their health care."

Ossoff said seeing Georgians stand in long lines to cast their ballots and demand better representation from their leaders makes him optimistic heading to a runoff.

He credited the work of former gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams and others in the past 10 years to register people to vote.

As ballots are counted, the lead that Perdue had over Ossoff has dwindled and fell to 49.87 percent early Friday for the Republican, compared with 47.81 percent for Ossoff. If this holds, the two will face off in a Jan. 5 runoff election.

Return to Patch for the latest vote tally. Subscribe to free News Alerts for election results.

As of 6:26 a.m. Friday, Perdue led Ossoff by 98,412 votes, according to the state elections website. Currently, 49.84 percent of the vote have been cast for the incumbent Republican, while 47.84 percent of ballots have been cast for Ossoff.

Perdue tweeted his support Thursday night for the president's unproven claims of widespread voter fraud in the states where he's lost ground.

"Every lawful vote cast should be counted, once," Perdue tweeted. "If that happens, I believe @realDonaldTrump will be re-elected."

While the race is close, Perdue's senate campaign manager, Ben Fry, believes his candidate will ultimately win. On Thursday, he released the following statement on the U.S. Senate race in Georgia that said in part, "If overtime is required when all of the votes have been counted, we're ready, and we will win."

Ossoff's campaign manager, Ellen Foster, released the following statement regarding a potential runoff early next year, "When a runoff is called and held in January, Georgians are going to send Jon to the Senate to defend their health care and put the interests of working families and small businesses ahead of corporate lobbyists."

The Democrat tweeted early Thursday night, "This is our moment, Georgia."

(Find real-time results from the state election office at the bottom of this story.)

Trump Jr. Rallies GOP Faithful

Donald Trump Jr. and others spoke at a small rally in Buckhead on Thursday night, asserting that Democrats tried to steal the election.

"The times in which you only take the votes you want is over," said U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who lost his Senate challenge to Kelly Loeffler.

The gathering in the parking lot outside the Georgia GOP headquarters then focused on the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs in Georgia.

"Guess what? You're going to have another election here in about two months that could decide the fate of the U.S. Senate," Trump Jr. told the crowd, according to AJC.com.

Every legal ballot will be counted, Sterling said during Thursday's press conference.

At a 3 p.m. briefing, Sterling refused to estimate when all ballots will be counted, when pressed by reporters.

"It will take time. We anticipate having the count done when the legal deadline for certification is, which is 10 days after the election," Sterling said. "We can't know how long the process will take. We hope to have clarity, however, with so many elections being so close, we are trying to get all the legal votes accurately."

Sterling said election officials in the counties with ongoing vote counts want to be diligent, accurate and ensure the actual vote reflects the voters' intent.

On Wednesday, Trump filed a lawsuit in Chatham County, near Savannah, requesting ballot counting be halted. Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer said the lawsuit was against the Chatham County Board of Elections.

Shafer tweeted on Wednesday that Republican observers in Chatham County had "watched an unidentified woman mix over 50 ballots into a stack of uncounted absentee ballots," according to a press release by the Georgia Republican Party.

On Thursday morning, Chatham County Judge James Bass dismissed that lawsuit, "after county officials provided evidence to prove all ballots were legitimate and late ballots were not being accepted," WSB-TV reported.