Shorter Window Could Cut Turnout For Georgia Runoff

November 14, 2022

Many Georgian voters will receive only five weekdays of in-person voting ahead of the December 6 runoff election between Senate candidates Herschel Walker (R) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D), neither of whom won 50% of the vote in Tuesday’s general election, starting November 28.

State law bars early in-person voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving as it’s a state holiday formally known as  Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Birthday. Thanksgiving and the day after are also state holidays.

It’s expected the protracted voting calendar could disadvantage Democrats, who tend to push early voting and vote-by-mail more than Republicans.

By Sunday Democrats had won Senate majority in the general election, as the Arizona race had been called in favor of incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly and the Nevada race was called in favor of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.

At the moment this leaves Democrats with the same 50 votes they have in the current 117th Congress—allowing Vice President Harris to cast any necessary tie-breaking votes. So the Georgia election between Warnock and Walker will merely determine how wide (however meager) the margin will be between Democratic and Republican Senators in the 118th Congress next year. 

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