Populous counties in Pennsylvania and Georgia, two major battleground states, halted their election counting without immediate explanations on Nov. 3.
Allegheny, Pennsylvania, the second-most populous county in the state, ceased ballot counting at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 4 and was said to resume at 10 a.m. this morning, according to The Hill. Pennsylvania carries 20 electoral votes and is considered a must-win for President Donald Trump, The Hill reported.
“It allowed time for everyone to get a little rest before reconvening,” Amie Downs, a spokesperson for the county, told the DCNF. “The staff doing the scanning were not on separate shifts. The same group was running the process the entire time. The process was not going to be finished in a few hours.”
Fulton County, Georgia, halted ballot-counting on Nov. 3 after a pipe burst in a major polling center around 6:00 a.m., according to the North Fulton Neighbor. The pipe was repaired and counting resumed hours later, but it has still not been revealed why county authorities made the call to stop counts since the polling center was operational following the incident, the local outlet reported.
Officials: We won’t have the vote count we expected tonight in Fulton County, home to Atlanta and a tenth of all Georgians. Absentee-by-mail processing at State Farm Arena was delayed 4 hours because a water pipe burst in a room. Officials say no ballots were damaged. @ajc #gapol
— Ben Brasch (@ben_brasch) November 4, 2020
The DCNF attempted to contact the external affairs division of Fulton County by phone on multiple occasions but was not able to reach area authorities for an explanation.
The state of Georgia carries 16 electoral votes and is also a must-win for Trump in his bid to defeat Democratic nominee Joe Biden. (RELATED: Here’s Why Things Are So Tight In Pennsylvania)
The president was on top in early numbers in both Pennsylvania and Georgia before the vote count stoppages. Trump leads Biden 50.2% to 48.6% in Georgia with around 93% of the total votes in play, according to the New York Times at the time of publishing.
Trump also leads Biden in Pennsylvania 52% to 46.7% with nearly 85% of the state’s total votes recorded, the Times reported.
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