Post Election Anchoring In Red

C1 3 b13 i'm tucker sargent i'm shelby this is 41nbc news at 5.

Good evening and thanks for joining us for 41nbc news at 5.

I'm shelby coates.

Tucker sargent will join us shortly.

To our top story tonight at five... counting in georgia.

Several counties -- including one in middle georgia -- are still counting votes.

At the same time america is watching to see if georgia will go to president donald trump or democrat joe biden.

In a news conference this afternoon... election officials say they have about 47-thousand votes left to count.

Those votes are mainly in the atlanta area.

But the secretary of state's office reports it is still waiting on nearly 18-hundred ballots in laurens county.

Also this afternoon ... several counties shifted from scanning the final absentee ballots to having review panels ... study any votes that were flagged electronically... to make sure the voter's intent was clear.

Gabriel sterling "fast is great and we appreciate fast.

We more appreciate accuracy.

Accuracy is going to be the bedrock upon which people who believe in the outcome of these elections, be it on the winning side or the losing side, accuracy is vital and it's the key to all of our processes."

Sterling says ... he hopes georgia can call the presidential race tonight.

But counting correctly is the goal.

And that could push an announcement on the final results... into tomorrow.

Here's a look at the latest numbers for georgia donald trump leads with 49 point 5 percent of the vote.

And joe biden has 49 point 2 percent of the vote.

That is with all precints reporting ... but without those 47-thousand outstanding ballots.

The deputy secretary of state jordan fuchs says.... the final margin ... may be as small as a thousand votes.

Georgia carries 16 electoral votes.

New tonight., a judge has dismissed a georgia lawsuit by the state republican party and president donald trump's campaign.

The lawsuit asks a judge to order chatham county to secure and account for ballots received after 7 p-m on election day.

They argue many ballots were received after the deadline.

And the suit claims a poll watcher witnessed 53 absentee ballots that had not been properly processed ... mixed into a pile of absentee ballots that were already set to be tabulated.

County superior court judge james bass did not provide an explanation for his dismissal decision, but county elections officials testified that all 53 ballots had been received on time.

Georgia also