Georgia certifies Joe Biden victory in 2020 presidential election

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The Georgia secretary of state certified the state's 2020 presidential election results Friday, officially declaring President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the state’s 16 electoral votes.

As reported by Fox News on Thursday, the results were determined after the state conducted an audit – involving a fully manual tally – of nearly 5 million votes cast by residents.

Georgia’s results on Friday showed Biden with a 0.25% lead over Trump, which is equal to about 12,670 votes.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will now have to certify the state’s slate of 16 presidential electors by 5 p.m. on Saturday.

But the Trump campaign has two days to request a recount because the margins are so close.

During the 2016 election cycle, Trump defeated Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton by a margin of about 5% in Georgia.

The last time the state voted for a Democratic candidate in the presidential election was 1992, when former President Bill Clinton won.

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The secretary of state’s office prematurely announced the certification while it was still unfinished earlier on Friday. Forty minutes afterward, a corrected news release was sent out saying that the results would be released later. The momentary slip was yet another moment of drama in a race that has been fraught with accusations.

Biden has 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, though the president has yet to concede the race and has repeated unfounded claims about voter fraud.

Trump’s campaign launched several lawsuits challenging the voting systems and processes in a number of key battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Georgia's two Senate seats will be decided in runoffs held on Jan. 5, 2021 – as Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the Republican incumbents, defend their seats against Democratic challengers the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively.

These two races will determine whether the GOP maintains its majority in the chamber.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.