When will Georgia certify the runoff results? Well, I can't tell you exactly, but here's what I do know.

First: Fulton (10 a.m.), DeKalb (noon), and Forsyth (2 p.m.) don't meet until tomorrow to certify, so that's the earliest the state could certify.

Fulton and DeKalb have unofficial but complete results already prepared, whereas Forsyth's agenda indicates that the board will be reviewing provisional ballots, including those cast by challenged voters, and UOCAVA ballots. That could take a while.

Banks County had 547 challenged voters, and the list of their 56 provisional voters they posted indicates that for 52 of them, the reason they voted provisionally was a challenge to their registration.

Forsyth had 5,127 challenged voters.

Oh, and Hall County isn't meeting until 3:30 p.m. tomorrow to certify.

Second: After counties have certified, the Secretary of State “ shall immediately proceed to tabulate, compute, and canvass the votes cast for all” federal and state candidates. O.C.G.A. § 21-2-499 (a).
If errors are found, the SoS can direct counties to recertify.

There appears to be no statute (law) or regulation requiring the SoS to certify the results of an election not involving presidential electors or members of the General Assembly by a particular deadline. The code annotations don't say anything about it either.

However, one notable deadline is January 19. Counties must electronically transmit precinct returns (results) to the SoS “within fourteen days following a primary, election, or runoff.” Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 183-1-12-.12 (b) (9).

In practice, the state usually certifies pretty quickly after that, absent unusual circumstances. Most prominent statewide elections in Georgia recently have had unusual circumstances, but this one doesn't really seem to.

The original timestamp on the state/federal certified results of the 08/11 primary runoffs, which did not include all counties, was 8/25/2020 3:42:00 PM EDT (results were subsequently updated due to recounts). Similarly, 12/15/2020 12:43:57 PM EST for 12/01 runoffs.

Indeed, Gabriel Sterling indicates the state will be reviewing certifications on the 19th. https://twitter.com/GabrielSterling/status/1349820717148286978

After the SoS certifies, the Governor “shall immediately issue certificates of election and commissions under the seal of the state” and deliver them to the candidates elected to federal office. O.C.G.A. § 21-2-502 (b) (1).

I told a few people the SoS was legally required to certify by January 22. I *expect* they will in fact certify earlier than that, to be clear, but I apologize for the error.

(There's no deadline for certifying the Public Service Commission runoff results either.)