Hopefully that's a typo. Last count I saw showed Kemp ahead by 58,000.
I believe that 18K is what they calculated she would need to gain in order to drop Kemp’s percentage below 50 and therefore force a runoff.
I think that the author meant that Governor-elect Kemp is around 18,000 votes above the 50%+1 threshold required to avoid a run-off. Even Abrams already conceded long ago that she didn’t get more votes than Kemp; she was just trying to “discover” more votes so that Kemp would fall bellow 50%+1 and thus spark a run-off on December 4.
Actually he’s ahead by somewhere in excess of 55,000 votes. I believe the author meant to say that she is behind roughly 18,000 votes to force a runoff.
Abrams needs 18,000 to force a runoff.