2020 Georgia election results by county, GA electoral college votes
Georgia could be key Trump vs. Biden race for president
FULTON COUNTY, Georgia -- Tens of thousands of still-uncounted ballots - many in counties where Democrat Joe Biden was in the lead - are what's making the Georgia contest between President Donald Trump and Biden too early to call.
*Counties are colored red or blue when the % expected vote reporting reaches a set threshold. This threshold varies by state and is based on patterns of past vote reporting and expectations about how the vote will report this year.
Trump and Biden were locked in a tight contest Thursday to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Georgia is a must-win state for Trump, who has a narrower path to victory than Biden.
Trump prematurely declared he was winning it early Wednesday morning. Yet by Thursday evening his lead over Biden had narrowed to less than 2,000 votes.
The secretary of state's office said Thursday evening that 18,936 absentee ballots still needed to be counted in seven counties.
That did not include provisional ballots and absentee ballots that have to be "cured" before being scanned. Ballots cast before Election Day by military voters and citizens living overseas and received by 5 p.m. Friday also will be tallied.
Additionally, Biden's vote margins grew after a handful of rural pro-Trump counties processed mail ballots cast in his favor, an analysis by the AP showed.
There is a potential that the race could go to a recount. Under Georgia law, if the margin between Biden and Trump is under half a percentage point of difference, a recount can be requested.
PATHS TO VICTORY: How Trump or Joe Biden could win the presidency
Georgia Senate Seats
In Georgia, two seats were being contested and at least one is headed to a runoff after no candidate reached the 50% threshold to win.
GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler will face Democrat Raphael Warnock, a Black pastor at the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, in the Jan. 5 runoff special election for the seat Loeffler was tapped to fill for retired Sen. Johnny Isakson.
In the other Georgia race, GOP Sen. David Perdue, the former business executive Trump calls his favorite senator, tried to stave off Democrat Jon Ossoff, another candidate who has benefited from the "green wave" of campaign donations. It, too, could go to a runoff.
ELECTORAL MAP: How Pres. Trump, Biden could win the 2020 presidential election
The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.
