ATLANTA — It was a big day in the presidential transition process as Georgia's 16 Democratic electors cast their votes this afternoon for Joe Biden to be president and Kamala Harris as vice president.
Each elector marked a ballot that was then collected, counted, and confirmed by a roll call. Former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams led the vote.
One of those electors, Sachin Varghese, told 11Alive he thought Biden's presidency would take the country in a new direction - with all Georgians in mind, even if they didn't vote for him.
"Joe Biden has made it clear that he seeks to be the president not only of Democrats but of all Americans," Varghese said.
"I think the man cares deeply about the well-being of Americans and he's going to work hard to make sure that we have a stronger economy, overcome COVID, and we can get back to living our lives as normal," he added.
The vote that Varghese participated in is part of the official process to seal Biden's historic win in Georgia after the former vice president defeated President Donald Trump by roughly 12,000 votes.
Abrams, who also served as an elector, shared a message similar to Varghese.
"You, too, are Americans," she said. "You, too, deserve to be served. You, too, deserve to be supported. You, too, deserve to have spaces carved out and rough places smoothed. You, too, deserve a leader who sees us all."
At the same time that the Democratic electors were meeting, the chairman of Georgia's Republican party tweeted the Republican nominees for the presidential electors also met to cast their votes. David Shaffer claimed it allows them options if one of the president's lawsuits were to overturn the results.
But political experts have repeatedly said overturning the election is highly unlikely based on the arguments presented, so far, and the Supreme Court rejecting requests by the Trump campaign to rule on multiple lawsuits filed on behalf of the president.