In one of the decisive outcomes for the presidential race in the United States, there will be a recounting of votes in Georgia where Democratic candidate Joe Biden is leading with a thin margin over Republican President Donald Trump.
According to Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the margin in the presidential race would be just a few thousand votes.
"As we are closing in on the final count, we can begin to look towards our next step. With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia," Raffensperger told reporters.
He said, "The final tally in Georgia at this point has huge implications for the entire country. The stakes are high and emotions are high outsides. We will not let those debates distract us from our work. We will get it right."
The candidates each had 49.4% of counted ballots, though Biden was ahead by about 1,500 votes as of Friday morning with 4,169 regular ballots left to count, Reuters quotes Georgia's Voting System Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling as saying.
Officials also said about 9,000 military and overseas ballots were still outstanding and could be accepted if they arrive on Friday, and are postmarked on Tuesday or earlier, reported Reuters.
A recounting of votes cannot be started until Georgia's current votes are certified, which is expected to complete on or before November 20.
Trump vs Biden: The race to White House
Democrat Biden is seen inching closer to the White House, with gaining more ground on President Trump in battleground states of Georgia and Pennsylvania on Friday. President Trump has falsely claimed the election was being "stolen" from him.
Biden, 77, would become the next president by winning Pennsylvania, or by winning two out of the trio of Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. Trump's likeliest path appeared narrower - he needed to hang onto both Pennsylvania and Georgia and also to overtake Biden in either Nevada or Arizona.
In Pennsylvania, which has 20 electoral votes, Biden cut Trump's lead to just over 18,000 by the early hours of Friday, while his deficit in Georgia, which has 16 electoral votes, shrunk to about 450.
Those numbers were expected to continue to move in Biden's favor, with many of the outstanding ballots from areas that typically vote Democratic, including the cities of Philadelphia and Atlanta. Biden, meanwhile, saw his lead in Arizona shrink to around 47,000 by early on Friday; he was still ahead in Nevada by only 12,000 votes.
As the country held its breath three days after Tuesday's Election Day, Georgia and Pennsylvania officials expressed optimism they would finish counting on Friday, while Arizona and Nevada were still expected to take days to finalize their vote totals.
Trump, 74, has sought to portray as fraudulent the slow counting of mail-in ballots, which surged in popularity due to fears of exposure to the coronavirus through in-person voting. As counts from those ballots have been tallied, they have eroded the initial strong leads the president had in states like Georgia and Pennsylvania. States have historically taken time after Election Day to tally all votes.
Trump fired off several tweets in the early morning hours on Friday, reiterating the complaints he aired earlier at the White House. "I easily WIN the Presidency of the United States with LEGAL VOTES CAST," he said on Twitter, without offering any evidence that any illegal votes have been cast.
Twitter flagged the post as possibly misleading, something it has done to numerous posts by Trump since Election Day.
