NEW YORK, November 20. /TASS/. Vote recount in Georgia has confirmed that Democratic nominee Joe Biden has won the state, reads the statement issued on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s website Thursday.

The statement shows results of recounted 5 million ballots in 159 counties of the state. Incumbent Republican President Donald Trump gets 2,462,857 votes, while Biden secured 2,475,141 ballots, the Democrat enjoys a lead of 12,284 votes.

Initially, Georgia counted 4.99 million votes and awarded the victory to Biden with 12,780 more ballots than Trump. "Georgia’s historic first statewide audit reaffirmed that the state’s new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results," said Raffensperger. "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."

Trump led in Georgia (16 electoral votes) in the first days after the vote, however, as ballots were being processed, his lead over Biden was shrinking until the Democrat pulled ahead on November 6. According to the state election commission, Biden won over Trump with 0.3% gap. This tiny margin gave ground to trigger a recount. Georgia must finalize its results by November 20.

According to The New York Times, Republicans can demand another recount in the state if the lead is again below the 0.5% mark. In this case, special fast scanners will be applied, while the first recount was carried out by hand.

The United States held the presidential elections on November 3. Though the vote count is still underway, major US media outlets project that the Democratic contender has presumptively won the presidential election. Both Fox News and Associated Press have put Biden over the top, beyond the needed 270 vote threshold. Trump is challenging the current outcome, claiming irregularities in the ballot processing in key swing states, and has filed lawsuits to fight his case in court.