Georgia's tightly-contested governor's race may not have a winner named until next week.
The news comes a day after Democrat Stacey Abrams refused to concede to Republican Brian Kemp in the gubernatorial race, telling her supporters that she would not yield until "every vote gets counted."
In Georgia, a candidate must earn 50 percent of the vote to be declared the winner, otherwise, the election must continue with a runoff between the top two candidates.
As of 5:15 a.m. Wednesday, Kemp held a 1.9 point lead over Abrams, considerably smaller than his initial 3.1 point advantage.
On Wednesday evening, The Washington Post reported that Kemp maintained a 50.3 percentage of the vote compared to Abrams' 48.7 percent.
In order for Kemp's total to drop below 50 percent, Abrams and Libertarian candidate Ted Letz would need at least 25,000 more votes, the Post reported.
Georgia's secretary of state office issued a statement on Wednesday stating fewer than 3,000 regular ballots remained to be counted and that 22,000 provisional ballots were cast on Tuesday.
For Abrams to force a runoff, nearly all the remaining ballots would need to be cast for her or Letz.
The news from the secretary of state's office prompted Kemp's campaign to declare victory, with campaign spokesman Cody Hall saying, "Abrams does not have a mathematical formula to victory, based on our calculations. We have a clear path to victory. We're declaring victory and we are moving forward with the transition process starting tomorrow."
However, Abrams' campaign told reporters that over 100,000 ballots have yet to be counted.
With a win, Abrams, a former minority leader of the state's House of Representatives, would be the first black woman to be elected governor. She would be the first Democratic governor since 1998.
Kemp is Georgia's current secretary of state.
The secretary of state's office has set a deadline of Friday, Nov. 9 for counties to verify provisional ballots. The office will finalize election results no later than Wednesday, Nov. 13.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
