Al Jazeera English published this video item, entitled “Joe Biden declared winner in Georgia after manual ballot count” – below is their description.
United States President-elect Joe Biden has officially been declared the winner in the state of Georgia, flipping the historically Republican-voting state for the Democratic Party for the first time in decades.
The Associated Press news agency said late on Thursday Biden had secured Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes, stretching his lead to 306 Electoral College votes compared with US President Donald Trump’s 232.
The news agency declared Biden the winner of the tightly contested US presidential elections on November 7 after the former US vice president won key states Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – but the state of Georgia had been too close to call.
The AP news agency’s victory call comes just after Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office announced a manual audit of the presidential contest results had confirmed Biden’s narrow lead over Trump.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reports from Washington, DC.
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Al Jazeera English YouTube Channel
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In This Story: Electoral College
The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president. Each state appoints electors equal in number to its congressional delegation. Federal office holders cannot be electors.
Of the current 538 electors, an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority there, a contingent election is held by the United States House of Representatives to elect the president, and by the United States Senate to elect the vice president.
The appropriateness of the Electoral College system is a matter of ongoing debate. Supporters argue that it is a fundamental component of American federalism by preserving the Constitutional role of the states in presidential elections. Candidates must appeal to a broad and diverse set of states rather than focusing only on the few U.S. cities with the highest population densities.
Critics argue that the Electoral College system is less democratic than a direct popular vote and that the College violates the democratic principle of “one person, one vote.” Thus, a president may be elected who did not win the national popular vote, as occurred in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016.