Georgia recertifies election results, confirming Biden's victory

Georgia has re-certified the state’s results in the 3 November presidential election after two recounts, confirming again that the Democratic presidentelect, Joe Biden, won the state.

Governor Brian Kemp late Monday rubber-stamped the recertification issued earlier in the day by the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, despite he and other senior Republicans in the state coming under pressure from Donald Trump to take action to overturn the result.

“It’s been a long 34 days since the election on November 3,” Raffensperger, a Republican, said in a press release on Monday. “We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the results remain unchanged.” He added: “Continuing to make debunked claims about a stolen election is hurting our state.

Georgia conducted a full hand recount shortly after the election, which showed Biden still leading by about 13,000 votes. Despite that hand recount, Donald Trump’s campaign requested another recount because of the narrow margin of Biden’s victory.

That recount has now confirmed Biden’s victory in Georgia, making the president-elect the first Democrat since Bill Clint on to carry the state.

Shortly after that announcement was made, Trump again lashed out against Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp. The president has repeatedly called for a special legislative session in the state to once again challenge the election results, a request that Kemp has reportedly declined.

Raffensperger said on Sunday that a special session to overturn the state’s election results “would be then nullifying the will of the people”.

Georgia’s lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, a Republican, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that he did not support Trump’s call for a special legislative session.

“Calling the general assembly back in at this point would almost be along the lines of a solution trying to find a problem,” Duncan said. “And we’re certainly not going to move the goalposts at this point in the election. We are going to continue to follow the letter of the law, which gives us a very clearcut direction as to how to execute an election.”

The president staged a rally in Valdosta, Georgia, on Saturday night in which he repeatedly falsely claimed he won the state. Two Georgia Republicans face 5 January runoffs which will decide control of the Senate.

“They cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it,” Trump falsely insisted. “And they’re going to try and rig this [Senate] election too.”