(The Center Square) – As of 5 pm Tuesday, all 159 Georgia counties were due to have certified their election results.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger applauded counties at a news conference for their hard work to meet that deadline.

“Today, Georgia counties will reconfirm the will of Georgia voters with county certifications,” Raffensperger said.

With all districts reporting In the Peach State, former President Donald Trump received 50.74% of the vote to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 48.52%. Two third-party candidates obtained only 0.74%.

Georgia counties saw record voter turnout, both in early voting and on Election Day. Of the state’s nearly 7.3 million voters, 5.3 million voted (72.7% turnout) in the general election.

Raffensperger said he was grateful the system worked so well and praised the recent ballot measures.

“Georgia had the safest, freest, fairest and fastest elections in the United States,” he said. “Over the past six years, we have made many improvements to increase voter safety and accessibility while improving the voter experience with short lines and quick results. “I kept that promise and voters responded a week ago with record turnout.”

In 2020, Georgia was not called until 16 days after the election, due to legal challenges and a manual recount.

No such election drama is expected this year, and Raffensperger says all counties are in “good condition” to certify election results.

Candidates have until Thursday at 5 p.m. to request a recount, and the state will certify the election results by November 22.

Raffensperger said he doesn’t expect any setbacks in the state’s certification process, especially with Trump leading the presidential race by nearly 117,000 votes.

“Whether people like it or not, those results were very conclusive,” he said. “We fully expect people to accept the results. “I think that would be a healthy thing for our republic.”

After extensive drama and legal action Talking to the Georgia State Board of Elections in the months leading up to the election, Raffensperger, a Republican, said he is happy with the election measures that were implemented.

“Election integrity doesn’t just happen at the last minute… it’s planned years in advance,” he said. “That’s why I led the effort to ensure only American citizens vote in our elections, and why I fought for election security to add photo ID to all forms of voting here in Georgia. I followed that and accomplished it.”

He also responded to Democrats’ claims that those regulations will hamper voting.

“I have a very direct message for you: citizens will not be afraid to go out and vote,” Raffensperger said.