The State of Georgia announced a full hand recount of Presidential election ballots Wednesday.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, “With a margin being so close, it will require a full by-hand recount in each county. This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount, and a recanvass all at once. It will be a heavy lift.”
The hand recount must be completed by Friday, Nov. 20. Top Republicans, including President Trump and both of the state’s Republican senators are accusing Democrats of perpetrating election fraud, a claim Raffensperger and local election officials of both parties have rejected.
“Mathematically, you actually have to do a full hand-by-hand recount of all because the margin is so close,” Raffensperger said. “We want to start this before the week is up.”
“With regard to whether we think these individual cases will turn the election, every time we take a step along this process we believe we are getting closer to our goal and that is the president winning these states and ultimately being re-elected,” said White House spokesman Tim Murtaugh.
Raffensperger added that the State of Georgia hasn’t found any widespread fraud in the election process in his state.