Although ballots remain uncounted in Georgia’s closely watched gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Brian Kemp has declared victory and resigned as secretary of state while Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams has refused to concede and assembled a legal team to investigate reports of voting issues throughout the state.

Abrams and her supporters had called for Kemp to step down in the lead-up to Election Day, accusing him of spearheading efforts to suppress voter turnout by suspending more than 53,000 voting registrations and purging 107,000 additional voters from the rolls. However, his resignation comes not as a response to that pressure, but rather as part of his transition to governor after prematurely declaring victory late Wednesday.

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Responding to reports of Kemp’s decision to kick off his transition before all the votes are tallied and amid a last-minute legal challenge that aimed to prevent him from being involved in the vote-counting process, journalist John Nichols remarked on Twitter, “Kemp flees the scene of the crime.”

While Kemp’s press secretary argued on Wednesday that “it is mathematically impossible for Stacey Abrams to win or force a runoff election,” Abrams’ campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo noted at a noon press conference on Thursday that the secretary of state’s office—now overseen by Robyn Crittenden, a long-time ally of outgoing GOP Gov. Nathan Deal—has not released any evidence to support that claim.