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Blog | Fulton County rescans certain ballots 'out of an abundance of caution'

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ATLANTA — Below is an archive for post -Election Day updates for Nov. 7

For the latest daily blog click here.

The Associated Press called the U.S. presidential election for former Vice President Joe Biden after calling Pennsylvania at 11:25 a.m. Saturday. 

In Georgia, ballot counting and processing have continued in a number of counties throughout Georgia, and former Vice President Joe Biden has taken a slim lead. 

The residents of metro Atlanta spared no time as they hit the streets to both celebrate Biden's and Kamala Harris' win or rally in the name of President Donald Trump. 

Friday night, The Associated Press called a runoff for incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue and Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff. 

The runoff between incumbent Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat challenger Raphael Warnock was called earlier in the week. That race is a special election to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Johnny Isakson's retirement.  

2020 Atlanta and Georgia Election Results

Our team of journalists will continue to be up around the clock to offer the latest developments and insights as the count goes on.

RELATED: Two Georgia senate races head to runoff

UPDATES

Please note all times are E.T.

11:05 p.m. | Richard Barron, the Fulton County elections director, explains why they had to rescan some of the ballots. He said they are now finished. Watch the video below.

9:24 p.m. | Fulton County has announced it will be rescanning specific types of ballots after discovering certain issues on Saturday afternoon. The county elections office issued a statement later in the evening explaining that some ballots "were not captured" in the Friday night results and a smaller number were not scanned. Out of an abundance of caution, all provisional, military and Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act *UOCAVA) ballots scanned on Friday will be rescanned. The previous night's upload will also be pulled and replaced.

8:43 p.m. | The crowd in Midtown Atlanta cheered for Biden as he came on the stage to give his first speech as president-elect. 11Alive's Chenue Her reports they are watching from a small TV in the bar.

8:05 p.m. | Gwinnett County has released another update on where they stand. The county ran into technology issues. 

Joe Sorenson, the communications director for the county,  said 535 absentee by mail ballots that required a signature cure and 3 military/overseas ballots were not able to be tabulated on Saturday because Dominion Voting Systems technicians were unable to make the system adjustments needed to complete a results upload.

Sorensen said additionally, 965 provisional ballots will have to be reviewed by the Board of Voter Registrations and Elections to determine their eligibility to be tabulated. Sorensen added that Dominion technicians are working resolve the issue so that ballot adjudication can begin again on Sunday. 

The Board is scheduled to review the provisional ballots on Monday, November 9.

8 p.m. | DeKalb County has reported 1,982 votes in the last hour. Out the total, 177 went for Trump and 1,790 are for Biden. Biden’s lead in Georgia grows to 9,160.

7:30 p.m. | Georgia continues to count votes. Preside-elect Biden's lead in Georgia is now up to 9,160 votes. It was previously 7,500.

7:15 p.m. | DeKalb Voter Registration and Elections announced the early voting times for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District special election runoff between Kwanza Hall and Robert Franklin. 

Voting for the special election runoff begins Nov. 9 and concludes Nov. 25 and is available Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. through 5 p.m., with Saturday voting on Nov. 21 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

DeKalb voters residing in the 5th District can cast  ballots in person, by mail or by drop boxes. The runoff election is Dec. 1. The only designated early voting location for the special election is the DeKalb VRE office, located at 4380 Memorial Drive, Decatur. 

The 5th District is where the late Congressman John Lewis served for decades. The Dec. 1 runoff will produce a representative whose time in Congress will last just a few weeks, to finish up Lewis' current term. 

The Associated Press reported that Democrat Nikema Williams was the winner of the Nov. 3 election and will represent the district next year at the start of the new term. 

6:50 p.m. | 11Alive has found parities around Atlanta as Biden and Harris supporters celebrate in the streets of midtown and along Moreland Avenue.

4:46 p.m. | The Secretary of State has announced that Fulton County found an issue involving reporting from Friday. Brad Raffensperger hasn't said specifically what the issue was but added that officials are at State Farm Arena to rescan their work from that day. He added that he has a monitor onsite and has sent additional investigators and also dispatched the Deputy Secretary of State as well to oversee the process "to make sure to thoroughly secure the vote and protect all legal votes." He added that observers from both political parties are also there.

3:21 p.m. | Another 1,047 ballots in Georgia have been reported in the last two hours - most notably including 726 from Cobb County but also Troup, Rockdale, and Columbia. Biden currently holds a vote lead of about 7,547 according to vote counts directly from the counties. This differs from the Secretary of State's main page, which hasn't shown an update in roughly three hours.

3:15 p.m. | NBC News will provide a Special Report with coverage of tonight’s address to the nation by President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris from Wilmington, DE.

The Special Report will be anchored by Lester Holt and will be part of the NBC Sports broadcast of Notre Dame football.  Game coverage will continue on USA Network during the speeches.

2:35 p.m. | Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced to all Georgia voters that there will be a statewide audit. 

1. There will be a statewide audit.

2. That audit will be done prior to state certification of the election.

3. If the certified results have the second-place finisher being with 0.5%, that candidate may request a recount.

All of these steps are already part of the process and defined in Georgia law."

2:22 p.m. | Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Jon Ossoff released the following statement:

2:15 p.m. | Reverend Raphael Warnock, who will be facing Kelly Loeffler in a Senate run-off on Jan. 5, extended his congrats to the Biden-Harris team. 

2:00 p.m. | This video showed the moment a Trump campaign bus drove by hundreds of Trump supporters rallying outside the Georgia State Capitol in downtown Atlanta. They were followed by Biden-Harris supporters in cars.

1:39 p.m. | Supporters for President Trump have gathered at the Georgia Capitol. 

1:20 p.m. | Both rallies and celebrations are happening across the city of Atlanta. Here is our live feed.

1:00 p.m. | Two former Democratic presidents are offering their congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Bill Clinton tweeted that “America has spoken and democracy has won.” The 42nd president also predicted Biden and Harris would “serve all of us and bring us all together.”

12:55 p.m. | Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter sends congrats to President-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

"Rosalynn joins me in congratulating our friends President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. We are proud of their well-run campaign and look forward to seeing the positive change they bring to our nation," the statement reads.

12:50 p.m. | Joe Biden is set to give a speech tonight, according to multiple network reports.

12:38 p.m. | Stacey Abrams sent her congrats to President-Elect Joe Biden.  

12:36 p.m. | Here's what's on the agenda today for Cobb County. 

  • Elections workers are finishing the counting.
  • Processing the remaining provisional ballots
  • Processing ballots that were cured by the deadline.
  • Processing the overseas military ballots 
  • They expect to upload between 700-800 ballots to the system today.

12:23 p.m. | Kamala Harris released a video of her speaking with Joe Biden.

12:16 p.m. | Democrat Joe Biden has won Nevada, adding to his Electoral College victory over President Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press. 

12: 15 p.m. | History lesson: "A poetic day for Joe Biden: Exactly 48 years to the day that he was first elected to the United States Senate, Joseph R. Biden has been elected as the 46th president of the United States," Yamiche Alcindor tweets.

12:07 p.m. | President Donald Trump is not conceding to President-elect Joe Biden, as shown below, he is promising unspecified legal challenges seeking to overturn the outcome of the race for the White House. 

11:40 a.m. | President Trump released a statement saying, "the simple fact is this election is far from over." 

The following is Trump's full statement: 

"We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor. In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process.  Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.

“Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access.  

“So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.

- President Donald J. Trump" 

**It is important to note that 11Alive does not have any record of the Biden campaign counting illegal ballots or refusing to count legal ballots.

11:30 a.m. | Kamala Harris likely makes history as the first Vice President to be a woman, Black and of Asian Heritage after the Associated Press calls the presidential election.

11:25 a.m. | The Associated Press has called the U.S. presidential election for former Vice President Joe Biden after calling Pennsylvania at 11:25 a.m. Saturday.

AP says Biden will secure the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat incumbent President Donald Trump, becoming the 46th president of the United States.

11:23 a.m. | Gwinnett officials are speaking with workers and are set to give an update on the election count.

11: 17 a.m. | Gwinnett is still running into technology issues this morning. Election workers are waiting for the problem to be resolved. Computers inside the first room shown in the video are supposed to push out what election workers are supposed to see on their screens. 

10:55 a.m. | Here is the latest with Gwinnett: 

  • Gwinnett is working on provisional ballots today. Election workers are checking to see if they can be approved or not
  • Once that happens, the Board of Elections will meet to review the ballots, to decide if they're able to count them on not (depending on whether someone provided enough information that they are properly registered to vote)
  • Afterward, the rest of the results will be uploaded. 
  • Gwinnett told 11Alive's Paola Suro that they are still having problems with technology, which could delay this process.
  • Here's what is left: 538 mail-in ballots + 965 provisional + 3 military & overseas ballots

9:25 a.m. | Counties are already getting to work. Two more counties, Baker and Muscogee, have certified their results. That now brings the total to 36 of 159 counties now certified. 

8:17 a.m. | Here are the latest leads across the nation.

8:00 a.m. | Need more of a visual breakdown about where the votes stand in Georgia? 11Alive's Christie Diez explains. 

7:30 a.m. | How many votes are left to count in Georgia? Here's what we know.  As of 3 p.m. on Friday, the Georgia Secretary of State says counties report ~14,200 provisional ballots and a max of 8,400 military ballots. A few counties (like Gwinnett) had small numbers that need extra processing. Since 3 p.m. Friday, we've received about 16,715 more ballots in Georgia. A hundred few absentees, but many were provisional and military. So now, we look for counties to signal they are done. Right now 34/159 counties or 21% have certified their results. They are done counting. The more orange we see on this map, the closer we are to getting final numbers.

Again today, 11Alive News will reach out to those green counties to find out what's left. Some counties tell us they won't certify until Monday. Others will work through the weekend to wrap this up sooner.

So what's left to count in Georgia? We can only estimate. Given the last updates from the Georgia Secretary of State, our county checks, and what's come in overnight, our analysis suggests a range between somewhere between 7,000 and 15,000 ballots. But that is only an educated estimate.

We should note, nearly all of what's left are military, provisional, and cured ballots. Not all of those will be accepted.

Credit: Secretary of State

4:50 a.m. | Biden is ahead of President Trump by 7,248 votes in the race for Georgia's pick at President as of 2:40 a.m. We received one of the largest single outstanding vote totals overnight. Most were from Fulton.

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