Biden appears to be winning, but the election is far from settled.
As more states finish counting votes on Friday and throughout the weekend, the presidential election might seem like it’s almost over. It’s not. Recounts loom in Georgia and Wisconsin at least, and perhaps also in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada, where the margins between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump remain slim. After overtaking Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania, Biden leads in enough states to clinch the presidency—but those leads remain tenuous, and major media outlets have not yet called the race for either candidate, though Decision Desk, an independent vote-counting operation, has called both Pennsylvania and the race for Biden. The bigger question at this point is not whether recounts will happen, but whether they will affect the overall outcome of the race. Take Georgia, for example. As of noon on Friday, Biden led in Georgia by fewer than 1,600 votes—a margin of less than 0.1 percent of the more than 4.8 million votes counted so far in the state. « With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia, » said their Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a Friday morning press conference. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger: « Right now Georgia remains too close to call… There will be a recount in Georgia. » #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/0AE2OpY6pA The Recount (@therecount) November 6,2020 Georgia state law does not allow for automatic recounts in the event of close races, but candidates are allowed to request recounts in any race decided by less than half of 1 percent.
