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By Mandy Taheri
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Former President Donald Trump is projected to win Georgia, according to several networks, and take its 16 Electoral College votes.
The battleground state has been closely watched and contested, with the two major-party candidates competing to secure its 16 electoral votes on the path to 270. The Cook Political Report rated the competition in Georgia a "toss-up," with most polls leading up to November 5 slightly favoring Trump.
CNN and NBC News have projected Trump will win the state.
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Now that Georgia has gone to Trump, Harris cannot win the presidential election without winning Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. At the time networks called Georgia for Trump, Harris was behind in all three states.
Harris will not be addressing attendees of her election watch party, according to Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, said.
The Peach State has a history of supporting Republican presidential candidates, but Joe Biden narrowly flipped the state in 2020. Prior to that, no Democratic candidate had won the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.
With 93 percent of votes counted, Trump was leading Georgia with 50.7 percent of the vote, according to CNN projections. A CNN exit poll found Trump was leading with Independent voters by 11 points. Independent voters make up about 31 percent of the electorate in Georgia. It's a swing of 20 points toward Trump since 2020.
On Election Day, polls in Georgia are open for 12 hours, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time. If a voter is in line before the polls close, they have the legal right to remain in line and cast their vote.
Results are likely to start being announced shortly after polls close, although it could be hours or days before the final result is known.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a statement Tuesday that the Bureau's name and insignia is "being misused in promoting false narratives surrounding the election."
It specifically noted a video containing a fabricated FBI press release that alleges "five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party. This video is also not authentic, and its contents are false," the Bureau said in its statement.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said on Tuesday that a bomb threat was made against multiple polling places.
He stated that the threat originated from Russia and was deemed not credible.
"In the interest of public safety, you always check that out," Raffensperger, a Republican, said.
He added: "They're up to mischief, it seems. They don't want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election."
In a later press conference, Raffensperger clarified that the threat affected between five and seven precincts in multiple Georgia counties.
On Monday, Georgia's highest court ruled that over 3,000 absentee ballots might not be counted if they are received after election day, despite an error by local election officials.
All the ballots are in Cobb County, a northern suburb of Atlanta that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Stan Baker, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump, dismissed a last-minute bid from the Republican National Committee to challenge votes in Georgia's democratic strongholds.
Baker said the plaintiffs were attempting to "tip the scales of this election by discriminating against [counties] less likely to vote for their candidate" and asked GOP lawyers not to "take us any closer to that ledge."
"There's no supporting facts. There's no supporting law," Baker said. "That parade of horribles is factually and legally incorrect."
Follow along with this article for the latest updates.
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Who Won the State in 2016 and 2020?
The relatively new battleground state flipped in the last presidential election, with Biden winning by 0.2 points—just over 11,700 votes. Of the 4,997,716 votes cast, Biden secured 2,461,854 and Trump won 2,473,633 according to Georgia's Secretary of State office. The state had the second-narrowest margin in the 2020 presidential race, following Arizona.
In 2016, Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by more than 5 points, garnering 2,089,104 of the 4,092,373 votes. Clinton won 1,877,963 votes in the state.
What Were the Polling Averages in Georgia?
Prior to November 5, most polling averages showed Trump with an edge over Harris in the state.
An AtlasIntel survey of 1,212 likely voters on October 30 and 31, found the former president up by 2 points in a head-to-head with Harris, 50 percent to 48 percent. Trump's lead was within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The poll found Trump performing better among male voters, garnering 51 percent support compared to Harris' 43 percent, while Harris outpaced Trump among women with 51 percent to Trump's 46.5 percent.
In a survey by CNN and SSRS conducted between October 23 and 28, Trump was ahead of Harris 48 percent to 47 percent, according to responses of 732 registered voters. That gap also falls within the poll's margin of error of 4.7 percent.
A Quinnipiac University survey of 1,328 likely voters in the state conducted from October 10 to 14 found Trump with a 7-point lead in the state, with 52 percent of respondents supporting him to 45 percent for Harris. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
Polling aggregators also found Trump leading in the state, with The New York Times showing Trump narrowly ahead 49 percent to 48 percent, a similar finding as Nate Silver's Silver Bulletin, which put Trump at 48.9 percent to Harris' 47.9 percent on Election Day.
Other aggregators found Trump ahead by larger margins. On November 5, The Hill has Trump with a 1.7-point lead.
Half of Ballots Cast Were From Early Voting
Half of Georgia's 7,236,690 active registered voters cast their ballots ahead of November 5. The Secretary of State's office reported that 3,761,968 ballots were cast during in-person early voting and 242,620 absentee ballots returned as of November 2, for a total of 4,004,588 early voting ballots.
The state reported that 92 Georgia counties exceeded 50 percent turnout ahead of Election Day.
These early voting numbers broke records last week, toppling 2020, when five days ahead of the election, about 2.3 million voters had cast a ballot in person.
Trump and Harris Repeatedly Campaigned in Georgia
Both candidates have made repeated appearances in the state, returning just days before Election Day. Trump most recently appeared in the state on November 3, and Harris on November 2. Each appeared in the state three times in October.
Follow Newsweek's live blog for the latest election updates.**
Update 11/5/24, 3:41 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with more information.
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