Tuesday, January 5, is the much anticipated Georgia Senate runoff elections. Will twink Jon Ossoff manage to dethrone Georgia royalty? Will Kelly Loeffler's baseless attack ads backfire? That all remains to be seen, but here are a few quick facts you should know heading into Tuesday:
When do polls close in Georgia?
Voting is allowed between 7 am and 7 pm Georgia-time, which is Eastern Standard Time. (So polls close at 4 pm over here on the West Coast.) Anyone who is still standing in line at a polling location at 7 pm is allowed to vote, according to the Georgia Voter Information Guide. People cannot register to vote at polling locations, and the registration deadline was December 7. Military and overseas ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and arrive by Friday. Here are the Georgia voter identification requirements, if you're curious.
How long has voting been going on?
The Georgia Secretary of State's office reports that around three million people have already voted in Tuesday's runoffs. (Around five million people voted in total in Georgia's November election.) Close to 900,000 people have turned in mail ballots, which is about 32% of the early vote, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Black and female voters make up a significant amount of the returned mail ballots. Early voting has been particularly heavy in the areas surrounding Atlanta, Savannah, and Columbus—all districts that are expected to provide Democrats a large share of their votes. The majority of voters are still expected to vote in-person, notes the AJC, and Republicans are banking on their attacks on Warnock inspiring a high amount of day-of voting among their base.
Will we have an idea of who is winning by Tuesday evening?
Maybe, but don't count on it. No votes get counted until polls close at 7 pm on Tuesday. We can probably safely assume that early voting will skew Democratic. The big question is if the lagging turnout in Republican areas will stay lagging on Tuesday evening. Reminder: If the margin separating two candidates ends up being within 0.5%, the losing candidate can ask for a recount.
So who's gonna win?
Republicans have a bit of a built-in advantage since Perdue came in over Ossoff by around 88,000 votes in the November election. Trump's erratic and dicey messaging has put Republican day-of turnout into question. The race is expected to be very tight, polls remain very tight, so let's just wait and see. Here's how the votes shook out in November:
Since Slog loves chaos, let's drop a poll to really figure this shit out.
Will there be coverage on Slog?
Yup! Our evening news round-up, Slog PM, will kick-off early on Tuesday as a liveblog focused on the runoff elections. We'll keep it going into the evening, or until we get tired of looking at Steve Kornacki and his khakis.
More on Georgia: 76,000 New Voters, Perdue Disses Raffensperger, and Lots of Cash.
