Reuters
A federal judge late Monday ordered the review of thousands of provisional ballots that haven’t been counted in Georgia’s tight governor race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp. Judge Amy Totenberg said the race cannot be officially certified until those ballots, believed to have been issued to as many as 27,000 voters, have been reviewed and counted. Abrams would need to gain more than 20,000 votes to force a runoff against Kemp. Judge Totenberg’s order also calls for a hotline for voters to check if their provisional ballots were counted, a review of voter registrations, and updated reports from the state government about why so many voters were required to use provisional ballots. The Georgia race has been beset with voter-suppression claims for weeks after a series of controversial moves by Kemp, who declined to step down as the top Georgia elections official—even though he was overseeing the election he was a candidate in.