US: Georgia recount confirms Joe Biden victory over Trump amid claims of voter fraud

Georgia on Thursday (local time) finished its statewide audit of the closely contested US Presidential elections, confirming President-elect Joe Biden's victory over President Donald Trump, according to a news release from the Secretary of State's office.

Biden defeated Trump by a margin of 12,284 votes, according to the final results from the audit, which was a slight drop as compared to the pre-audit results, reported CNN.

Officials have said repeatedly that the audit confirmed that there was no widespread fraud or irregularities in the election.

"Georgia's historic first statewide audit reaffirmed that the state's new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results," Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said in a statement.

"This is a credit to the hard work of our county and local elections officials who moved quickly to undertake and complete such a momentous task in a short period of time," he added.

According to CNN, the suburban revolt against Trump in the suburbs surrounding Atlanta, paired with a huge turnout among Black voters, powered Biden's gains in the state, building on years of intensive Democratic organizing to register voters.

The Biden campaign's communications director for Georgia, Jaclyn Rothenberg, said in a statement on Thursday evening that the recount outcome, "simply reaffirmed what we already knew: Georgia voters selected Joe Biden to be their next president".

"Georgia's first statewide audit successfully confirmed the winner of the chosen contest and should give voters increased confidence in the results," said Ben Adida, the executive director of the election security nonprofit VotingWorks, which assisted Georgia with the audit.

Since Biden was projected the winner of the presidential elections, the US President has made debunked allegations that the election was rigged and has refused to concede defeat to Biden, while his campaign has filed several lawsuits in battleground states.

Earlier, Biden had said that Trump was showing 'incredible irresponsibility' by contesting the results of the presidential election and impeding the beginning of a transition process.

(ANI)

Also Read: Donald Trump fires Homeland security cyber chief for refuting 'election fraud'