Simon Ateba covers the White House, the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions for Today News Africa in Washington D.C. Simon can be reached on simonateba@todaynewsafrica.com
In a final blow to President Donald Trump, Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Friday signed the paperwork that officially grants the state’s 16 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden.
In an email to CNN, Tate Mitchell said: “The Gorvernor has formalized the certification delivered to our office by the Secretary of State — as is required by state law.”
State law required Kemp to award Georgia’s electoral votes to the certified winner of the presidential election.
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A federal judge on Thursday rejected a last-minute lawsuit that tried to block the certification of the result.
“Earlier today, Secretary Raffensperger presented the certified results of the 2020 general election to my office,” Kemp said at a news conference.
“Following Judge Grimsberg’s ruling yesterday, state law now requires the governor’s office to formalize the certification, which paves the way for the Trump campaign to pursue other legal options and a separate recount if they choose,” Kemp said, adding that “As governor, I have a solemn responsibility to follow the law, and that is what I will do.”
Earlier on Friday, Georgia secretary of state certified Biden victory in the state, dealing the first blow to President Donald Trump who had hoped that a hand recount completed on Wednesday was going to favor him but did not.
In the final presidential election results certified by Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, Biden won the state with a margin of 12,670 votes or 0.25 percent. The President-elect received 2.47 million votes and Trump got 2.46 million votes. Libertarian Jo Jorgensen received 62,138 votes.
“Working as an engineer throughout my life, I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie,” said Raffensperger, who is a Republican and Georgia’s top election official.
The certification followed a hand recount of the state’s five million votes that Mr. Raffensperger ordered after it was requested by the Trump campaign.
Biden is the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry Georgia since 1992.
“Georgia’s historic first statewide audit reaffirmed that the state’s new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement on Wednesday. “This is a credit to the hard work of our county and local elections officials who moved quickly to undertake and complete such a momentous task in a short period of time.”
Biden’s initial margin of victory narrowed slightly from about 14000 votes because of a few human errors uncovered during the recount.
The hand recount dashed President Donald Trump’s hope of winning Georgia after a hand recount.
Under state law, Raffensperger was required to certify the election results by 5 p.m. on Friday, and Republican governor Brian Kemp had until 5 p.m. on Saturday to certify the state’s 16 presidential electors. He did not wait until Saturday.
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