This weekend, early voting began for the US Senate runoff in Georgia, where neither Sen. Raphael Warnock, the incumbent Democrat, nor Herschel Walker, his Republican opponent, received more than 50 percent of the vote on Election Day.
At least 70,000 people voted in over two dozen counties on Saturday, according to authorities, and others waited for hours to vote again as lines wrapped around the block ahead of the December 6 runoff, according to The Washington Post.
The turnout was comparable to the first day of early voting in the general election, when around 80,000 Georgians allegedly voted early.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that it followed a legal challenge by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who stated that the advanced vote would not be permitted to begin on Saturday because state law prohibited an election from being held within two days of a holiday.
This weekend, early voting for the US Senate runoff in Georgia began.
According to the story, Warnock and the state Democratic Party filed a lawsuit to reverse the ruling, alleging that the statute did not apply to runoff elections. The Georgia Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Republicans, letting the race to go as planned.
The case highlighted the most recent conflict over Georgia’s contentious voter reform plan for 2021, which modified processes for absentee ballots, runoff elections, early voting, and election administrative policy.
The bill granted the Republican-controlled state government additional authority over election administration in response to former President Donald Trump’s 2020 accusations of massive voting fraud in the state.
In certain Georgia counties, early voting has begun for a special runoff election.
As the polls opened, there were allegedly two-hour waits in DeKalb County and Cobb County in the Atlanta metropolitan region.
Early voting was more convenient, said Atlanta voter Harry Johnson. “Working, it’s difficult to vote when you get off work at 5 o’clock and there are a thousand people in line.”
“We have a full house of guests. Bill Chapel, a Walker supporter from Bartow County, told The Washington Post that this provided him an excellent reason to leave the house.
The participation rate was comparable to the first day of early voting for the main election.
Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post, sourced from Getty Images
In the main election, Warnock beat Walker, the former Georgia Bulldogs football player, by 0.9%, although neither candidate won more than 50% of the vote since Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate, garnered 2.15 electoral votes. Oliver did not qualify to compete in the runoff.
Democrats had already won control of the Senate by a razor-thin margin, and party officials reportedly hoped that this victory would discourage Republican participation in the second Georgia election.
»Early voting has begun in the Georgia Senate election«