After two US federal court rulings and a flurry of legal filings over a 24-hour period, uncertainty still hangs over Georgia's midterm elections, including the still undecided race for governor.
Unofficial results in one of the nation's hottest midterm contests give Republican Brian Kemp a slim majority.
But Democrat Stacey Abrams maintains that enough uncounted absentee, mail-in and provisional ballots remain to force a December 4 runoff and keep alive her bid to become the first black woman in American history to be elected governor of a state.
In the week since voters went to the polls, arguments over certain provisional and absentee ballots have been presented at a dizzying pace before several different judges in federal court.
Among them was a lawsuit filed Sunday by Abrams' campaign seeking an extension by one day of the deadline for county election officials to certify their results.
As a hearing drew to a close just before the Tuesday afternoon deadline, US District Judge Steve Jones said he wouldn't extend the deadline because all the counties had likely already certified their results or were about to, and there were other protections in place.
Lawyers for state and county election officials argued that the Abrams campaign was trying to use an 11th hour lawsuit to rewrite the state's election laws.
County election officials have been properly counting ballots and have been able to complete their duties in the time allowed by state law, they argued.
Meanwhile, 15 protesters, including a state senator, were arrested on Tuesday during a demonstration at the Georgia Capitol calling for uncounted ballots to be tallied.
The Associated Press has not called the race.
Australian Associated Press
