In Georgia, a certification deadline and another court fight

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Georgia’s secretary of state to wait until Friday to certify the results of the midterm elections that include an unsettled race for governor and to take steps to protect provisional ballots.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled Monday that the secretary of state must not certify the results of the election until Friday at 5 p.m.

She ordered the state to establish a hotline or website where voters can check whether their provisional ballots were counted and, if not, the reason why.

For all counties with 100 or more provisional ballots, she ordered the secretary of state’s office to order county election officials to conduct a “good faith review” or to do an “independent review” itself of the eligibility of voters who had to cast a provisional ballot because of registration issues.