Washington: Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is a Republican, said on Wednesday the state will recount presidential election results in each of 159 counties by hand due to the close margin.

Georgia will conduct a manual hand recount of millions of ballots cast in the battleground state where President-elect Joe Biden is leading by more than 14,000 votes over President Donald Trump, who has not conceded in the US presidential race, and instead made unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud and electoral malpractice. Raffensperger in a press conference at Atlanta said “With the margin being so close, it will require a full by-hand recount in each county. He said such a decision had been made because of the “national significance” of the outcome of the election results in the state.

He also said “It will be a heavy lift. This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once. We have all worked hard to bring fair and accurate counts to assure that the will of the voters is reflected in the final count, adding that observers from both the political parties would be present during the hand recount. The hand recount of votes, however, will be only for the presidential election, he said. Georgia has 16 Electoral College votes.

Trump has alleged there has been massive voter fraud and electoral malpractice. Raffensperger’s announcement comes as he has faced pressure from President Trump’s campaign for a recount, calls from fellow Georgia Republicans to resign and accusations of mismanaging the election process. Raffensperger said he expects the recount to be done in time for Georgia’s certification of the presidential results, which has a November 20 deadline.

He said once the results are certified on November 20, a candidate within the 0.5 per cent margin will still be able to request a “recount,” but that it would be a “scanned recount” done by machines. Trump campaign on Wednesday celebrated the recount decision from the Georgia secretary of state as a victory for “integrity” and “transparency”.

“This is an important first step in the process to ensure that the election was fair and that every legal vote was counted,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh. Along with Georgia, Trump has filed lawsuits in the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and sought recounting of votes in Wisconsin.