Officials have ordered a full, hand recount of all votes cast in the US election in the state of Georgia.
It follows demands by the Donald Trump campaign - and is a more intensive process than the ‘scan’ recount required by law.
The state announced the day after the election that a recount would be necessary because Donald Trump and Joe Biden were within 0.5 percentage points of each other.
And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top official, said it was necessary to count them by hand because of the close margin.
It’s thought the recount will start before the end of the week.
But even if the result in the state, where Joe Biden is ahead of Trump by more than 14,000 votes, is overturned - it wouldn’t be enough to change the outcome of the election.
Even without Georgia, Biden would have 279 electoral votes - nine more than he needed to secure victory.
"Mathematically, you actually have to do a full hand-by-hand recount of all because the margin is so close," Raffensperger said at a news conference.
"We want to start this before the week is up."
He admitted the process would be a “heavy lift”, but said it would be indisputable evidence of who won the state.
Nationwide, Biden is leading Trump by 3.2 percentage points or nearly 5 million votes as final tabulations trickle in.
In order to remain in office, Trump would need to win all three undecided states plus overturn the results in one or more states already in Biden's column.
The Trump administration is not cooperating with Biden's team, which has been unable to move into federal government office space or tap funds to hire staff.
