Georgia counties work up to the deadline to complete presidential recount

ATLANTA — Thursday at midnight is the deadline for Georgia counties to complete their second recount of the presidential election.

The first recount was an audit done by hand where election workers across the state worked long hours counting millions of votes. They found no major changes to the original tally that had president-elect Joe Biden winning Georgia.

For the past several days, those workers were back at it counting again this time with a machine recount.

[RELATED: Georgia’s audit vs. recount: What’s the difference?]

Channel 2′s Matt Johnson was at the Georgia World Congress Center Wednesday night as Fulton County officials kept working up until the deadline.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s website was last updated at 10 p.m. and showed 142 out of 159 counties were done. DeKalb County reported it finished its recount around 11 p.m.

Watch Channel 2 Action News This Morning starting at 4:30 a.m. for the latest on the recount.

[SPECIAL SECTION: Election 2020]

Earlier Wednesday, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office had confidence that Georgia recount would finish up by the midnight deadline.

“The work is getting done. It’ll be done by tomorrow. They’re all going to meet the deadlines of recertifying by Friday,” said Gabriel Sterling, the voting system implementation manager.

Election officials do not expect the recount to change the results. But at a rally in Alpharetta, two attorneys in support of President Donald Trump said the recount has not changed their minds.

“There was and is still massive voter fraud across this country,” said Sidney Powell.

“They wanna know where’s your evidence, show us your evidence. Oh, we’re going to show them the evidence. There’s piles of evidence, there’s mountains of evidence,” Lin Wood said.

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No one has provided any evidence of widespread voter fraud. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said there is evidence of people harassing election workers and state officials. Raffensperger called on Trump to tone down the rhetoric with his supporters.

“This is exactly the kind of language that is at the base of growing threat environment for election workers. were simply doing their jobs. We will continue to do our jobs, follow the law and follow the process,” Raffensperger said.

In an interview with ABC News Wednesday night, Sterling called on Georgia’s two Republican senators to stop questioning the election results.

“These two senators in my opinion have time to step up, step out and do the right thing,” he said.

Raffensperger addressed fellow Republicans when he said the second Georgia recount will not lead to a Trump victory.

“We wish that our guy would have won the election but doesn’t look like our guy has won the election. And it’s like, Vice President Biden will carry Georgia, and he is our president elect,” he said.

Election officials expect that by Friday any changes in the vote total will be recertified and finalized. From there, they hope the discussion about the next Georgia elections is more civilized.

“Argue, persuade and engage, but do so peacefully. We are a nation of laws and not of men,” Raffensperger said.

GEORGIA VOTER GUIDE:

• Key Dates for 2020 Runoff Elections in Georgia
• These are the 7 races that are in a runoff in Georgia
• Did you know? You can still register to vote in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs
• How to vote by absentee ballot for Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff elections

Raffensperger blasts Trump as Georgia works to meet midnight recount deadline