Georgia election workers have begun a recount of almost 5 million ballots by hand that were cast in the presidential election as the U.S. media projects Joe Biden as the winner of Georgia's 16 electoral votes on Friday.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordered the manual recount, saying it came down to the race being too close.

"This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a re-count and a re-canvass all at once. It will be a heavy lift, but we will work with the counties to get this done in time for state certification," he said.

The recount has a November 18th deadline and will be the second largest recount in U.S. history. 

Although the U.S. media has projected Joe Biden as the winner of Arizona, officials are still counting ballots in the state. 

There are about 16,000 votes left to count but President Trump has lost the possibility of erasing the gap between himself and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, the New York Times reports.

Some Republican congressional members have acknowledged Biden as the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election and are saying the transition process for the next president should begin. 

President Trump is refusing to concede the election but Joe Biden says it won't impede the transition process from moving forward. Biden has already named his longtime aide Ron Klain as his incoming as White House Chief of Staff. 

In the meantime, Biden has not received national intelligence briefings or information on important White House issues needed during the transition.

Trump and some top Republican leaders still claim election fraud and are seeking legal challenges to the results. But according to CNN, a group of national, state and private election officials have said there is no evidence of fraud in the election. 

"The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result," reads a joint statement from the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees.

Trump has been advised his legal challenges will most likely fail, but is continuing the process anyway, CNN reported.

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