Biden wins Georgia as Trump continues unsupported fraud claims
U.S. president-elect's legal team confident Georgia recount won't change results
U.S. president-elect Joe Biden's legal team in Georgia said on Friday they do not expect a hand recount of votes in the state to change the results of the Nov. 3 election.
Democrat Biden, who led Republican President Donald Trump by more than 14,000 votes in Georgia out of five million cast, was projected the winner in the state on Friday.
A manual recount of the state's ballots began Friday, ordered by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger because of the tight margin.
"Trump's legal strategy seems to be aimed at denying the inevitable," said Democratic Party lawyer Marc Elias on a call with reporters. "At the end of the day, more people voted in Georgia for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris than voted for Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and there isn't anything that a count or a recount or a legal action is going to do to change that fact."
Once the recount is complete, there should be no more doubt about the result of the state's election, Elias said.
On Saturday, Trump again alleged that there was widespread voter fraud in the election.
"There is tremendous evidence of wide spread voter fraud in that there is irrefutable proof that our Republican poll watchers and observers were not allowed to be present in poll counting rooms. Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and others," he tweeted.
But his team has yet to provide evidence of the widespread fraud it has alleged occurred.
Advocacy group Common Cause on Friday called for Georgia to provide more resources to election offices, some of which the group said were having to hire new staff to help out exhausted election workers.
Two U.S. Senate run-off races will be held in the state in January. Democratic victories would yield a 50-50 Senate, with vice-president-elect Harris holding the tie-breaking vote.
That would tilt the chamber to Democrats and assure Biden's agenda would at least get a hearing under would-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
WATCH | Democrats look to Georgia run-off votes for control of Senate:
Pennsylvania, another battleground state in which Trump challenged Biden's win, said Friday it will not be ordering a recount due to Biden winning by a large enough margin.
Biden won the state and its 20 electoral votes by about 60,000 votes out of about 6.8 million cast, according to The Associated Press.
Also Friday, Trump won North Carolina and its 15 electoral votes. His victory in the state brings him to 232 electoral votes.
With Georgia, Biden now has 306 electoral votes, well past the 270 needed to win the presidency.
With files from CBC News and The Associated Press