Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has taken the lead over President Trump in the presidential election in Georgia.
At about 4:30 a.m., a release of ballots counted in the Atlanta suburb of Clayton County gave Biden a lead in the state of 917 votes. He pushed his lead out to 1,096 votes after another batch of votes came in at about 6 a.m.
Biden had been gaining on Trump throughout Thursday and Friday morning as many mailed-in ballots were slowly counted. No Democrat has won the state of Georgia in a presidential election since 1992.
Georgia has 16 electoral votes and a win there would put an Electoral College win in Biden’s grasp.
All eyes also remained focused on Pennsylvania, where Trump still held a lead on Biden — but one that was steadily shrinking.
Trump cannot win the Electoral College without winning Georgia and Pennsylvania.
In Georgia, Biden’s success in the traditionally red state can be attributed to the Democratic-dominated urban areas in and surrounding the cities of Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus and Savannah.
Given the closeness of the race, a recount in Georgia seems likely. Trump’s campaign has already requested a recount in the state of Wisconsin.
Georgia election officials on Friday will begin conducting a risk-limiting audit under a new state law before certifying the presidential election winner.
The risk-limiting audit will take a statistically significant sample of ballots and examine them by hand to observe whether the declared winner indeed won, NBC News reported.
Updated at 6:11 a.m.