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Secretary of State's Office gives status update on certifying Georgia's election

By law, the state must certify the election results by Tuesday, November 20.

The Georgia Secretary of State's Office is checking to make sure counties have complied with a judge's orders concerning provisional and absentee before they certify election results.

Interim Secretary of State Robyn Crittenden issued a statement Friday, giving an update on the status of the certification process. She took Kemp's position after he stepped down from the Secretary of State's Office last week. 

RELATED: Georgia's governor race could be decided by end of day

Read her full statement below:

“The Secretary of State’s office has been working closely with counties to ensure compliance with several judicial orders and existing statutes. Throughout this process, we have issued detailed guidance to county officials regarding compliance with these orders and, where necessary, recertification of their results," Crittenden said.

To comply with U.S. District Judge Totenberg’s order, twenty-seven counties were required to conduct a second review of provisional ballots rejected for code ‘PR,’ meaning that individuals did not appear on the voter rolls when they cast provisional ballots. Right now, over half of those counties have completed this review. To comply with orders by U.S. District Judges Jones and May, all counties were required to count absentee by mail ballots where those ballots were previously rejected solely due to missing or inaccurate dates of birth. At this stage, three-quarters of all counties have completed this review. We have directed counties to complete this review by 5 PM today.

“After we confirm that counties have complied with the judges’ orders and sent to the Secretary of State all required documentation, we will commence the regular process of reviewing this documentation in a manner that ensures accuracy and compliance prior to state certification.”

ALSO: Stacey Abrams considers unprecedented legal challenge in Georgia's governor's race

By law, the state must certify the election results by Tuesday, November 20. Georgia typically certifies sooner, however, a court order said it couldn't happen before 5 p.m. Friday because the certification deadline for all 159 counties was pushed back. 

Thursday morning, the Secretary of State's Office shows Abrams with 48.83 percent of the votes, which equals 1,923,582. Kemp has a total of 1,978,383 votes, which gives him 50.22 percent. 

Libertarian Ted Metz has less than 1 percent of the votes. 

RELATED: Gwinnett County certifies elections after adding nearly 500 votes to totals

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