ATLANTA — By mid morning Friday, the situation was clear enough to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to declare: Georgia will more than likely see a recount of votes cast in the general election.

At the time of Raffensperger’s press conference, Democrat Joe Biden had a little more than a 1,500-vote lead against President Donald Trump with 4,169 ballots left to count.

The consequential U.S. Senate race between U.S. Sen. David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff was also still within runoff territory, but not yet determined.

The Georgia presidential election is too close to call, Raffensperger said Friday.

“With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia,” the Republican announced. “Our election, obviously goes far beyond Georgia’s borders. The final tally in Georgia at this point has huge implications.”

A recount can take place at the request of the losing candidate if the margin of votes is within .5% of the total number cast.

Since the close of polls Tuesday evening, election officials have grappled with a record high number of ballots and a thin vote margin in the state. Despite nearly 300,000 votes separating Trump and Biden Tuesday, the Democrat slowly made up the deficit as mail-in ballots were counted.

Nearly 5 million Georgians cast ballots in the general election — a record number of voters on par with election officials’ predictions.

Record numbers of mail-in ballots and early voting led to more than 180,000 ballots still uncounted by Wednesday afternoon. Most of the outstanding ballots were from Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb and Chatham counties.

By 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Trump held just a 55,000 vote lead over Biden — the same margin which Gov. Brian Kemp (R) beat Democrat Stacey Abrams in the gubernatorial election in 2018.

By Thursday morning, thousands still remained to be counted but the number separating the candidates had dwindled to about 18,500.

Friday morning, the nation awoke to Biden in the lead.

Multiple polls predicted a razor-thin divide between a Democrat and Republican victory in Georgia — both for the presidential ticket and two competitive U.S. Senate races. The narrow margin between a red or blue victory further complicated the vote-counting process. 

A small number of absentee and provisional ballots remains to be counted. Military and overseas ballots can still be accepted up to 5 p.m. Friday — the state estimates that up to 8,900 could still come in.

Gabriel Sterling, statewide voting implementation manager in the secretary of state’s office, likened the gap Friday morning between presidential candidates to a population “less than a large high school.”

Although the office hasn’t picked up on any “widespread irregularities” or evidence of the voter fraud, Sterling said, every valid lead would be investigated by the office.

“When you have a narrow margin, little small things can make a difference. So everything is going to have to be investigated to protect the integrity of the vote —our office intends to do that. A wide margin — it doesn’t matter. A narrow margin — it does.”

Trump and his supporters have spread accusations that the final vote tally across the country would be inaccurate — blaming Democrats who run elections.

Raffensperger and Sterling — both Republicans — repeatedly reiterated “every legal vote” in Georgia will be counted.

“Stakes are high and emotions are high on all sides,” Raffensperger said Friday. “We will not let those debates distract us from our work. We’ll get it right. And we’ll defend the integrity of our elections.”

As expected, the increased use of mail-in ballots in Georgia and across the nation has stretched out the vote-counting timeline.

Many in the country were already watching the Peach State after a problem-riddled June primary sparked concern that record turnout in the general election could cause the state’s new election system to buckle.

But the increase in reliance on mail-in ballots due to the pandemic lessened the stress on the state’s voting machines. Record turnout during the three-week early voting period also reduced foot traffic on Election Day.

Before Election Day, nearly 4 million Georgians had already cast ballots — more than 1.2 million via mail-in and nearly 2.7 million early, in-person.

The use of mail-in ballots spared workers at the polls but added a hurdle to elections workers who tally the count after polls closed.

Raffensperger said a court ruling that allowed mail-in ballots to be processed but not tabulated before the end of vote casting saved the state days. But the sheer volume of ballots and narrow gap between candidates is taking time to navigate.

“The focus for our office and county election officials for now remains making sure that every legal vote is counted and recorded accurately,” he said.