Georgia was one of several US states unable to declare a definitive winner in the US presidential race on the night of November 3. However, as more and more mail-in ballots get counted, NBC felt comfortable on Friday declaring that Biden had clearly won the state and its 16 electoral votes.
However, even as NBC makes the declaration, Georgia officials are beginning a hand recount of the nearly 5 million ballots cast, since Biden's lead over Trump in the state was just 14,000 votes on Friday morning, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Meanwhile, NBC has also projected that Trump will take North Carolina and its 15 electoral votes. According to the Associated Press, Trump leads Biden there by 73,620 votes. However, AP still has not declared Trump the winner.
As it stands, according to NBC, Biden has 306 electoral votes and Trump has 232. In the US election system, a presidential candidate must take 270 electoral votes, awarded by state on a winner-take-all basis, to be declared the winner.
Most mainstream networks declared Biden to be the evident winner on Saturday, and Biden gave a victory speech that day amid congratulatory messages from leaders around the globe. However, Trump has so far refused to concede his defeat, filing a string of lawsuits in states across the country alleging mishandling of ballots, malfunctioning systems, and other scandalous practices that he says have nullified the election's outcome.
The victor will be sworn in on January 20, 2021.
