Biden Projected As Georgia Election Winner: Unofficial Results

GEORGIA — Georgia's hand recount of the general election began Friday, but news networks projected mid-afternoon that Democrat Joe Biden has won the state's 16 electoral votes. The re-tallying by hand of the nearly 5 million votes cast in the 2020 presidential election is under way.

Just after 2 p.m., both CNN and NBC said their projections showed the former vice president, already deemed the President-elect as of Saturday, when vote counts showed he had reached the 270 electoral votes needed to claim the presidency.

The current margin of votes in Georgia between President Donald Trump and Biden shows the Democrat leading the president by 14,163 votes, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

Georgia emerged as a key battleground state in this presidential election, and both Trump and Biden campaigned hard in the Peach State in the final weeks leading up to Nov. 3. Biden's win is the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has won the state since Bill Clinton captured it in 1992.

On Wednesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordered a hand recount of the entire state's general election. He pledged the process will be transparent, with Democrats, Republicans and independents standing behind the vote counters as they check every ballot.

The deadline for every county to complete the re-tally is Wednesday at midnight, and the deadline for the state to certify results is Nov. 20, the Associated Press reported.

"With the margin being so close, it'll require a full by-hand recount in each county," Raffensperger said Wednesday. "This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a re-canvass all at once. It will be a heavy lift, but we will work with the counties to get this done in time for our state certification. Many of these workers will be working overtime. We have all worked hard to bring fair and accurate counts to ensure the will of the voters is reflected in the final count, and that every voter will have confidence in the outcome, whether their candidate won or lost."

11Alive reported that a training video showed the recount, "must be done a certain way in Georgia's 159 counties: Teams of two people each will place ballots for Trump in one pile and ballots for Biden in another. They also have to set aside any mailed-in, hand-marked ballot if the voter’s mark is not clear."

"Half the people won't like the answer and half will love it," Raffensperger said.

Gabriel Sterling of the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office said this will be, "the largest hand re-tallying by an audit in the history of the United States," 11Alive reported.

Related: Is Georgia's Upcoming Ballot 'Audit' A Recount?: AP Explains

“Let me be perfectly clear on this: if it was 14,000 votes the other way, we would be doing the exact, same thing," Sterling said Thursday during a news conference.

Once complete, Sterling said, "the final numbers in the audit count will almost definitely be slightly different than the numbers previously reported by the counties but the overall outcome should remain the same," the Associated Press reported. "The results will not be released piecemeal as the counties finish counting but instead will be announced once the full tally is complete, adding that the results of the new count from the audit is what will be certified."

Fulton County, which rented a hall at the Georgia World Congress Center, is setting up to begin recounting on Saturday, with teams working from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Wednesday, the TV station reported.

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Raffensperger was asked Thursday on "CBS This Morning" if the risk-limiting audit ordered after criticism of how his office handled the elections was an overreaction.

An audit is required by state law and "we want to go with the gold standard of audits, we want to stay on the cutting edge of election integrity," Raffensperger said.

He told CBS he has seen no evidence of widespread fraud, but his office takes all accusations seriously.

"We will investigate every case we hear," Raffensperger said. "We believe people should be able to support this with facts."

He noted that Georgia had record turnout, with increased voter registration and participation on both sides of the aisle, which led to more time tallying votes.

Raffensperger is still in quarantine after his wife tested positive for the coronavirus after traveling, WSB-TV reported.

Raffensperger and his staff have been tested, the station said, and he has come back as negative on Friday morning. He and members of his staff were at a news conference Wednesday at the Georgia State Capitol, surrounded by state officials, reporters and other elections staff.

Biden will become the 46th U.S. president after unofficial election results in Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral votes, put him over the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency, the Associated Press and other news organizations projected. Georgia has not yet been called, although Biden leads in the state.

Biden continues to increase his lead over Trump in Georgia. As of Friday morning, Biden has 14,163 more votes than Trump, according to the Secretary of State's Office. Trump had 49.24 percent of the vote, with 2.457 million votes, to Biden's 49.52 percent and 2.472 million votes.