Explainer: Why the AP hasn’t called Georgia’s close race

A razor-thin margin and ongoing vote count are what’s making the Georgia contest between US President Donald Trump and Joe Biden too early to call.

Votes are still being counted across the state, though many from counties where Biden was in the lead.

Biden inched past the incumbent in the tally early Friday morning, leading by fewer than 1,100 votes of nearly 5 million ballots cast — a lead of about 0.022 percentage points. Under Georgia state law, a candidate can request a recount if the margin is within 0.5 percentage points.

Electoral research conducted by the AP found there have been at least 31 statewide recounts since 2000. Three of those changed the outcome of the election. The initial margins in those races were 137 votes, 215 votes and 261 votes.

Among all 31 recounts, the largest shift in results was 0.1%, in the 2006 race for Vermont’s Auditor of Accounts. This was a low turnout election in which the initial results had one candidate winning by 137 votes. The candidate eventually lost by 102 votes, for a swing of 239 votes.

The average shift in the margin between the top two candidates was 0.019 percentage points.

Trump and Biden were locked in a tight contest Friday to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Georgia is a must-win state for Trump, who has a narrower path to victory than Biden. Trump prematurely declared he was winning it early Wednesday morning.

— AP