Georgia runoffs: Democrats Ossoff and Warnock take early lead — but vote too close to call
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ATLANTA — Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock took the early lead Tuesday night against their Republican rivals Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in a pair of runoff elections that could transform Joe Biden’s ability to impose his legislative agenda.
With 52% of the votes in, Ossoff led Perdue 52.7% to 47.2%. Warnock also has the edge over Loeffler, 53.1% to 46.8%.
Those numbers are expected to change as more votes are counted.
The two runoff races, which have shattered fundraising records and are among the most consequential in recent American history, are currently too close to call.
Most polls on Tuesday closed at 7 p.m. ET in Georgia, with the fate of the U.S. Senate hanging in the balance, although some were extended due to technical difficulties.
Throughout the day, there were only a few hiccups reported across the state.
In two Chatham County voting precincts, voting hours have been extended after Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and other members of the Democratic Party of Georgia asked for the extension from a judge due to technical issues and possible misinformation.
One issue took place in Columbia County, where voters in some precincts had to fill out paper emergency ballots because poll worker access cards weren’t working. The issue was resolved by 10 a.m.
Paulding County reported a ballot scanner went down at the Crossroads Library. Voters placed their ballots in an “emergency ballot box” until the scanner was replaced less than an hour later.
In the nine weeks since the general election, more than half a billion dollars have been poured into the campaign coffers of Republican incumbents Perdue and Loeffler, as well as their Democratic challengers Ossoff and Warnock.
Political heavyweights have traveled to the Peach State to stump for the candidates, including eleventh-hour visits Monday from Biden, President Trump, and Vice President Mike Pence.
“You’ve got to swarm it tomorrow,” Trump told supporters at a rally Monday night in Dalton, Georgia.
State election officials, though, reported light turnout Tuesday. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said wait times at polling sites were “almost nonexistent,” averaging about one minute statewide. The purportedly low turnout is expected to help Democrats in the runoffs, as it did Biden in the general election.
The Washington Examiner went to five polling places in Atlanta Tuesday afternoon and found wide-open parking lots and no lines.
“I voted early,” Tonya Meeks told the Washington Examiner.
Meeks, who moved to Georgia from Alabama in 2012, was handing out bottles of water, snacks, and sanitizer.
“Anything that will make voters feel more at ease,” she said, standing with her son outside of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
In DeKalb County, which stretches from Stone Mountain to Dunwoody and is among the more demographically diverse places in Georgia, election officials said their turnout went in the opposite direction, exceeding their in-person Nov. 3 turnout around 5:30 p.m. That’s not necessarily good news for Republicans. In the general election, about 83% of voters in DeKalb voted for Biden.
Fulton County also beat in-person turnout Tuesday.
The head of Americans for Prosperity Action, a conservative political action committee that campaigned for Perdue in the runoffs, told the Wall Street Journal he was worried.
“We’ve got to make up a lot of ground today,” Tim Phillips, of the Virginia-based group long funded by the Koch family, said, adding, “They’ve outperformed us in early voting; there is no question of that. We need a big turnout today.”
A record 3 million Georgians, or about 38.8% of all registered voters in the state, had cast their ballots before Tuesday. The number easily exceeded the previous early voting record of 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2008 Senate runoff race between Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin.
Tuesday’s races are playing out because none of the candidates got more than 50% of the vote in the Nov. 3 general election, as required for winning a statewide race in Georgia.
If Ossoff and Warnock win the runoff races, the U.S. Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. If Perdue and Loeffler win, Republicans would hold a slim 52-48 majority.
“This is history unfolding in Georgia right now,” Ossoff told reporters outside an Atlanta polling site.
If Ossoff wins his race he would become the youngest senator at 33. If Loeffler, who is filling out appointed to her post last year by Gov. Brian Kemp, wins, she would become the first woman senator elected from Georgia. If Warnock wins, he would become the first black senator elected from Georgia.
Perdue, who has been in quarantine and showing up to events via video, went on Fox News to plead his case,saying if Ossoff wins, the American dream dies.
Tags: News, Georgia, Georgia Senate, David Perdue, Kelly Loeffler, Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, Senate, Joe Biden, President Trump
Original Author: Barnini Chakraborty
Original Location: Georgia runoffs: Democrats Ossoff and Warnock take early lead — but vote too close to call