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Nov. 8, 2018 / 3:36 PM GMT / Updated 4:02 PM GMT
By Allan Smith and Morgan Radford
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has offered his resignation to Republican Gov. Nathan Deal effective today, a lawyer representing Kemp said during an Atlanta court proceeding on Thursday.
Attorney Russ Willard of the attorney general’s office made the announcement in federal court, according to The Associated Press, as part of court proceedings in a lawsuit aimed at barring the secretary of state from overseeing the vote count in the still-undecided governor’s race.
Kemp’s resignation is effective at 11:59 a.m. Thursday.
Kemp, the GOP candidate for governor, holds a narrowing lead over Democrat Stacey Abrams following Tuesday’s vote. The race remains too close to call, according to NBC News, but Kemp has declared himself the winner and expressed a desire to begin the transition. Abrams has not conceded.
As more ballots are being counted, Abrams’ deficit nears both the threshold required for a recount and the level needed to trigger a runoff election. Georgia requires that one candidate has more than 50 percent of the vote in order to avoid a runoff. Currently, Kemp leads Abrams, 50.3 percent to 48.7 percent.
In his role as secretary of state, Kemp oversees Georgia’s elections, something that opponents have pointed to as an inherent conflict of interest. Last month, former President Jimmy Carter, a Georgian, called on Kemp to resign his office.
During a legal proceeding this morning where plaintiffs seek to prevent the secretary of state from overseeing the vote count in the governor’s race, attorney Russ Willard of the attorney general’s office told the court that Kemp offered his resignation to Deal, according to The Associated Press.
CORRECTION (Nov. 8, 11:20 a.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated the effective time of Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s resignation. It is 11:59 a.m Thursday, not 11:59 p.m. Thursday.