ATLANTA — The margin between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the Southern battleground state of Georgia continued to narrow Thursday as poll workers in mostly Democratic-leaning counties continued tallying absentee ballots.
At 8 a.m., with more than 4.9 million votes counted, Trump's lead had shrunk to 18,504 votes — about .37 of a percentage point. The number of remaining ballots was estimated to be about 50,000.
About 90,735 ballots — mainly from Democratic-leaning counties — had remained outstanding at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Some counties, including Fulton and DeKalb, worked through the night to process and scan ballots.
With the gap between Biden and Trump narrowing, a recount is a possibility. According to Georgia law, a recount can be requested if the margin between the two candidates is less than or equal to 0.5%.
At 9 a.m., Chatham County, a Democratic-leaning county that includes the city of Savannah, had 25,000 absentee ballots remaining. A spokesman said it would probably be another "day or so" before all votes were counted.
Fulton County, the state's most populous, had 3,600 ballots remaining to be opened and scanned at 7 a.m. A spokesman said the county expected to finish scanning them about 10 a.m. Then, more review panels would complete the adjudication process.
DeKalb County in metro Atlanta finished scanning and processing shortly after midnight Wednesday night.
Before noon Wednesday, Raffensperger had told reporters he was "pushing really hard" for counties to get all their results counted by the end of the day.
"It's a close election," he said at a news briefing before noon at the Georgia state Capitol. "We're doing fine and we're really pleased with it."
Soon, he added, "we'll be off everyone's radar and they'll be worried about states up north."
Six hours later, a spokesman declined to say whether the state would have a result before midnight.
"I really can't say," Jones said. "The counties are doing this. We're just sort of the clearinghouse. We can't make them do it any faster than they're doing it."
In one county, Jones said, poll workers went to retrieve ballots from locked ballot boxes Wednesday afternoon and were surprised to find more ballots than expected.
As Trump's lead narrowed, Georgia Republicans raised a steady barrage of complaints throughout the day about the ballot tabulation process in several counties.
On Twitter, David Shafer, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, said Republicans and other public observers were having problems in "being allowed to view tabulation and canvass."
"Fulton County told our observers last night to go home because they were closing up and then continued to count ballots in secret," he said on Twitter.
"Today in Fulton County," he added, "they are operating a forklift between the place the ballot scanners are located and the area our observers have been instructed to stand."
A few hours later, Shafer raised problems with the process in Chatham County.
"Our observers watched an unidentifiable woman mix over 50 ballots into the stack of uncounted absentee ballots."
By Wednesday evening, the Georgia Republican Party and Donald J. Trump for President had filed a petition in the Superior Court of Chatham County for a judge to require that county's elections board to "collect, secure, and safely store all absentee ballots" it received after 7 p.m. Tuesday.
"The possible counting of absentee ballots arriving after 7:00 p.m. on Election Day frustrates that organizational mission and dilutes lawful vote," the petition said.
"Failing to ensure that absentee ballots received after the deadline are stored in a manner to ensure that such ballots are not inadvertently or intentionally counted, as required under Georgia law, harms the interests of the Trump Campaign and President Trump because it could lead to the dilution of legal votes cast in support of President Trump."
Georgia has not supported a Democratic president since Bill Clinton in 1992. But in the last decade, it has gradually shifted blue as the state's population has surged from 9.6 million to 10.6 million.
In the 2012 presidential election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney won Georgia by 8 percentage points. In 2016, Trump won by 5 percentage points. Two years later, then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate, won the governorship over Democrat Stacey Abrams by just 1.4 percentage points.
"The eyes of the state and the nation are upon Georgia at this time," Raffensperger said in a statement. "We're as anxious as anyone to see the final results and to start work on certification and planning for our runoff elections. As the work goes on, I want to assure Georgia voters that every legal vote was cast and accurately counted."
The runoff elections referred to Georgia's two U.S. Senate races, at least one of which is headed to a Jan. 5 runoff.
The secretary of state's office said security measures were in place to secure the vote. In Fulton, the state's most populous county, a state monitor is in the room for all counts; a precertification audit will provide additional confidence that the votes were accurately counted.
"We have long anticipated — and said publicly — that counting would most likely take place into Wednesday night and perhaps Thursday morning," Raffensperger said. "We're on pace to accomplish that responsibly, ensuring that the voice of every eligible voter is heard. It's important to act quickly, but it's more important to get it right."
