Biden projected to win GA, flip state blue for 1st time in decades, multiple outlets report
President-elect Joe Biden is projected to flip Georgia blue for the first time in nearly three decades, multiple national news outlets report.
Biden led in the newly minted battleground state by a margin of roughly 14,000, securing Georgia’s 16 electoral college votes and padding his winning total. The New York Times and ABC have called Georgia for Biden. It is the nation’s tightest presidential contest.
The Associated Press has not called Georgia’s race. The outlet does not declare a winner in an election that will be, or is likely to be, subject to a mandatory recount. In elections where recounts are not required by law but a candidate has requested one, the AP will not call the race if the margin between the top two candidates is 0.5 percentage points or less.
McClatchy, owner of the Ledger-Enquirer and the Telegraph, relies on the AP to call elections.
Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to win Georgia: he eked out a narrow victory in 1992 over George H. W. Bush, with Ross Perot winning 13% of the vote.
Biden received strong support from Georgia’s largest cities, including Atlanta, Savannah, Athens and Macon, as well as the southwest portion of the state. Young voters and Black voters were the driving forces behind Biden’s win, according to demographic data provided by the state.
It is Biden’s only projected Deep South electoral victory.
Audit and pending recount
The projection comes as county election officials count the state’s nearly 5 million presidential ballots as part of a risk-limiting audit. Counties have until Friday to certify their election results, and the state’s deadline is Nov. 20.
Georgia’s Republican senators, congressional delegation and state party have attacked Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over the election process. Some have alleged voting irregularities, such as ineligible or dead voters casting ballots.
Both of Georgia’s incumbent senators – David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler – have called on Raffensperger to resign, calling the handling of the state’s election “an embarrassment.” The Republican Secretary of State says he won’t resign and called claims that his office was not transparent “laughable.”
Perdue and Loeffler are in fierce runoff races with Democrat challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.
Because Trump and Biden are separated by less than 0.5%, Trump could request a formal recount after Georgia’s vote has been certified. Outgoing U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who lost a bid for one of Georgia’s Senate seats and is leading Trump’s recount team in the Peach State, has asked for a recount by hand.
“... the Secretary of State should announce a full hand-count of every ballot cast in each and every county due to widespread allegations of voter irregularities, issues with voting machines, and poll watcher access,” Collins wrote in a statement released Tuesday. “We can – and we will – petition for this in court after statewide certification is completed if the Secretary of State fails.”
Georgia campaign visits
Trump, Biden and their proxies made visits to the Peach State over the past month, underscoring Biden’s appeal in a state that Trump won by more than 200,000 votes in 2016. Trump visited Macon on Oct. 16 and his son followed Oct. 23.
Biden visited Warm Springs, an homage to former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Atlanta a week before Election Day. Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris was in Gwinnett County and former President Barack Obama campaigned for Biden in Atlanta before Election Day. Jill Biden visited Columbus, Macon and Savannah leading up to Nov. 3.
This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Biden projected to win GA, flip state blue for 1st time in decades, multiple outlets report."
