ATLANTA — Scroll below for updates.
A historic audit of Georgia’s election began on Friday. It’s a hand retally of the state’s nearly 5 million ballots cast in the general election on Nov. 3. It’s the largest audit in the country’s history to be conducted by hand.
This is all in an effort to validate the close results in the presidential race. In Georgia, President-elect Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by less than 0.5%.
NBC projected Friday that Biden is the apparent winner in Georgia. The Associated Press has not called the race yet.
Some counties are providing live video streams of their retally process.
The audit is not a recount. A recount can happen after the state certifies their election results and must be requested by the candidate. That’s why it’s being called a retally or hand count.
Throughout the day, we’ll update this blog with new information from the counties as they continue the tally along with other election updates.
11:15 p.m. | 11Alive recaps Fulton and DeKalb's election audit process from Saturday. You can watch 11Alive's Maura Sirianni's report below.
7:18 p.m. | Earlier today, President Donald Trump tweeted about Georgia's election retally, calling it "a waste of time."
He tweeted, don't let the "Radical Left Dems STEAL THE ELECTION!"
Twitter put a disclaimer on the tweet saying "this claim about election fraud is disputed."
11Alive contacted the Secretary of State's Office to see if they wanted to respond to the accusations. We will provide an update if we receive a statement.
Rallies have been organized across the U.S. around a slogan that insinuates this year’s presidential election was rife with fraud. The slogan is “stop the steal.” The groups believe the election is being stolen from President Trump through means of election fraud. However, there isn’t evidence to these claims.
6:25 p.m. | The group Floridians against Fraud has arrived at the State Capitol in Downtown Atlanta to show support for President Trump. Their schedule shows that they made several stops throughout Florida before heading to Georgia on Saturday. Watch the video here. A few people showed up with Biden-Harris signs as well.
There have been rallies organized across the U.S. by some groups who believe there was widespread fraud in the general election. However, our VERFIY team has been able to determine that there is no evidence to suggest this despite ongoing attempts to prove it.
6 p.m. | Earlier today, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger tweeted a series of answers to frequently asked questions regarding the election.
Some of the answers specifically pertained to the audit and what it means.
10:30 a.m. | According to Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron, 174 teams of auditors are on hand at the Georgia World Congress Center, participating in the audit
During a news conference Saturday morning, he said that all of the mail-in absentee ballots that they were working on, had been distributed to the auditors on the floor. He said that county officials hoped to complete their retally of ballots by Monday.
9:15 a.m. | About 100 non-partisan observers from The Carter Center are part of Georgia's hand retally and audit. They will be in the room with election workers and other monitors.
The Carter Center has been working to protect election security and democracy around the world since 1989, but their Georgia effort is a first for the United States.
8 a.m. | Many counties across the state have started their second day of retally efforts, while others are starting their first day.
The herculean, county-by-county effort is labor-intensive and meticulous.
A number of counties, including Fulton, DeKalb and Cobb counties, are providing live coverage of their retally efforts so citizens may watch.
The Secretary of State's office said the audit should be completed statewide by Wednesday.
Historic hand county audit of Georgia's election results
