Secretary Raffensperger certifies election; ‘Kraken’ case dismissed

ATLANTA, Ga. (WALB) - On Monday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recertified the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election.

The recertification came following an audit-triggered hand recount and a formal recount requested by the Trump campaign.

Both recounts upheld the original outcome of the race. The certified results of state and federal races can be found on the Secretary of State’s website.

Also on Monday morning, the ‘Kraken’ lawsuit launched by former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell was dismissed by the United States District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, Judge Timothy Batten.

“Today is an important day for election integrity in Georgia and across the country,” said Secretary Raffensperger. “The claims in the Kraken lawsuit prove to be as mythological as the creature for which they’re named. Georgians can now move forward knowing that their votes, and only their legal votes, were counted accurately, fairly, and reliably.”

In recertifying the results, Raffensperger affirmed that all 159 counties have provided to the state the total votes tabulated for presidential candidates in the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Further, the Raffensperger affirms that the statewide consolidated returns for the presidential election are a true and correct tabulation of the certified returns received by this office from each county.

Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 16 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, with over 1.3 million absentee by mail voters and over 3.6 million in-person voters utilizing Georgia’s new, secure, paper ballot voting system.