ATLANTA — Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger hoped all votes would be tallied in Georgia by Wednesday and the state would be out of the national spotlight —but that didn’t happen. 

By mid day Thursday about 60,000 ballots remained uncounted spread across 14 counties — with the largest chunks in Chatham, Fulton and Gwinnett.

Gabriel Sterling, voting system implementation manager for the Secretary of State’s office, updated reporters at 10:30 a.m. Thursday while Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was in meetings. Sterling said he is “prayerful” that a final count will be done today but reminded anxious voters that an accurate count is paramount.

“This is a long process, but I think all of us would agree that having an accurate count is much more vital — an accurate and fair count — is much more vital than having a fast count,” he said.

Fulton County, the site of a burst water pipe Tuesday at State Farm Arena that delayed the process in the early hours of counting, has about 11,200 ballots left to get through, and Gwinnett County is working through about 7,300.

The largest numbers of outstanding ballots — about 17,000 — are in Chatham County, where the Trump campaign and Republican Party of Georgia have filed an emergency petition calling for local election officials to “collect, secure, and safely store all absentee ballots” received by the county board of election after 7 p.m. deadline on Election Day. The party and campaign alleged a poll observer saw 53 absentee ballots that came in too late added to a pile of on-time absentee ballots.

Sterling reiterated Thursday that counties are ultimately in control of running elections — some more resourced than others. Sterling said election workers have been slowly working through both ballots cast in person on Election Day and absentee ballots that were returned before 7 p.m.

Workers are tired, he said, but the secretary of state’s office is working with counties to try to get counting wrapped up today.

The president himself has spent months attacking the nation’s election system, and in the early morning Wednesday claimed the election was riddled with “fraud.” Republicans across the country have echoed the unfounded accusations.

Sterling said the combination of paper ballots, poll watchers, discrepancy investigators and a statewide audit that will happen after the race should assure voters that votes will be tallied accurately.

The elections directors and employees across Georgia’s 159 counties, he said, are here “to do the job of protecting democracy.”

“They think about the votes of every person in this room and around the country. These people are not involved in voter fraud. These people are not involved in voter suppression,” he said. “I’m telling you they’re doing their jobs every day. It’s hard. We’re thankful for them for it. And we’re going to work with them to make sure that every legal lawful ballot is counted.”

But even with absentee ballots fully counted, there is still much to get through. Absentee ballots from military and overseas voters and provisional ballots will be addressed last.

Voters who are notified of issues with their absentee ballots, he said, have until Friday to cure them.

A recount is also on the table. Under Georgia law any candidate can request a recount within two business days of the outcome if the results are separated by less than .5%.

“This is going to be an extremely close margin — especially in the presidential election,” Sterling said.