Top Georgia election official expects vote counting to end Thursday afternoon

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Georgia's top election official said he expects the state to finish counting remaining ballots in the race between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden by midday Thursday. 

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, told WSB Radio in Atlanta that officials were still tallying about 50,000 ballots, most of which are in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, and Chatham County, where Savannah is located.

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“We’re looking at by lunchtime having most of this knocked out,” Raffensperger said. "By and large, all the big numbers are in."

As of late Thursday morning, Georgia was one of five states that had not yet reported complete election results. The race is still too early to call in those states; neither candidate has met the 270-electoral vote threshold needed to win the presidency. 

Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling said officials are still trying to determine how many outstanding provisional ballots need to be counted but said he hoped there would be a resolution by the end of the day. 

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“We are working with the counties to try and get a full understanding of how many provisionals might be available,” Sterling said, adding that the election is "going to be an extremely close margin, especially in the presidential election."

Biden's victories in Michigan and Wisconsin -- two states that Trump won in 2016 -- left him at 264 electoral votes, meaning he's one battleground state away from becoming president-elect. 

Although Trump is ahead in Georgia, his lead has dried up overnight as officials count outstanding absentee and mail-in ballots from Atlanta and Savannah, which tend to skew Democratic.

Fox News projections show the president up by 0.4 of a percentage point or a little under 19,000 votes. 

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