Georgia recount likely as Biden catches up with Trump

A possible call for a recount of votes in the presidential election in the US state of Georgia, is imminent as Joe Biden reduced President Trump’s lead to 3,486.

The gap between the two candidates narrowed on Thursday night, after the 17,000 votes from Chatham County took the total votes cast in the state to 4,948,610.

Trump now has a narrow lead with 2,446,850 votes, while Biden has 2,443,364 votes.

There are still thousands of mailed and absentee ballots to be counted in the state. And these include military and overseas ballots, expected to arrive on Friday.

Either candidate can ask for a recount.

Republican Secretary of the State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger,
had hinted earlier about a possible recount, if the gap between the presidential candidates is less than 0.5 percent.

In Georgia, a candidate can ask for a recount when the margin is less than .5% of the total votes cast for the office.

The request must be made within two days following the certification of election results and is ultimately up to the discretion of the secretary of state.