https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...0fw?li=BBnb7Kz
DALTON, Ga.—Georgia voters appeared slow to take to the polls Tuesday for two Senate runoffs that will determine which party controls the chamber, an outcome that could curb or expand the scope of President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
As of late morning, turnout on Election Day appeared light in all of Georgia’s 159 counties, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections.
“I am hearing of virtually no lines across the state,” said Jordan Fuchs, Georgia’s deputy secretary of state. “That should be an encouraging sign for voters who want to get out and vote quickly.”
In past elections, lines at polling stations have been common during high-interest elections in both Republican and Democratic areas of Georgia.
On Tuesday morning in rural Effingham County north of Savannah, voters showed up one or two at a time every few minutes at polling places such as Meldrim Baptist Church. The county is a GOP stronghold, with nearly 75% of voters casting a ballot for President Trump in November.
In Atlanta, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff showed up to a polling location to greet voters. When he arrived, he was only able to meet with one voter in the parking lot. His campaign spokeswoman said Mr. Ossoff would’ve lingered longer to wait for more voters to show up, but left earlier than expected because the media was following him.
More than 3 million votes have already been cast in early in-person voting and mail-in ballots underscoring high interest in the two races, which have drawn unprecedented campaign spending and national attention to the Peach State.
Both parties believe Democrats likely have built an advantage in the early vote, making same-day turnout important for Republicans.
One election pits Republican David Perdue, 71 years old, against Mr. Ossoff, 33. Mr. Perdue spent the last six years as a Georgia senator and is up for reelection after his term ended on Sunday. Mr. Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker, is seeking to win his first elected office.
In the other race, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, 50, is running against Democrat Raphael Warnock. Sen. Loeffler was appointed to her post last year to fill a vacant seat. If she wins, she will become the first woman ever elected senator from Georgia. Mr. Warnock, 51, is pastor of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s former church. If he wins, he will be the first Black senator elected from Georgia.
The head of the Americans for Prosperity Action, a conservative political action committee that campaigned for Mr. Perdue in the runoffs, said Tuesday that he was worried about reports of a light turnout.
“We’ve got to make up a lot of ground today,” said Tim Phillips of the Virginia-based group long funded by the Koch family. He said of the Democratic effort: “They’ve outperformed us in early voting, there is no question of that. We need a big turnout today.”
Mr. Phillips’s organization launched the largest state campaign effort in its history for these runoffs, bringing in dozens of staffers and spending millions of dollars, Mr. Phillips said. The organization’s staff knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors in the state. But Democrats, as they did in November, did a much better job getting their voters to cast ballots early, either with in-person voting or by mail, he said.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Tuesday morning that it wasn’t likely that the state’s runoff races would be called on Election Night. “Depends how close it is but most likely it’ll probably be tomorrow morning. It really depends how many absentee ballots,” Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, said on Fox News.
Election workers in Georgia’s 159 counties will process the day’s votes as well as absentee and early-voting ballots after the polls close. In November, final results took weeks to be certified. With spending exceeding $500 million, the races are among the most expensive Senate contests in history.
Republicans currently have a majority of 51 to 48 in the Senate. If Democrats win both Georgia races by defeating Ms. Loeffler and taking Mr. Perdue’s seat, they will gain control because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would cast tiebreaking votes. If Republicans win one of them, the GOP will maintain its majority.
Since 1988, Republicans have also won every statewide runoff in Georgia except one, in 1998, as Democratic turnout declined more steeply than that of Republicans for the second election, according to a nonpartisan report on the state’s history of runoffs. Democrats are aware of that history and built an unprecedented turnout operation for these runoffs, hoping to best the Republicans’ own aggressive effort.
Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Ms. Harris all campaigned for the candidates of their respective parties in the push.
Monet Taylor, owner of a commercial-cleaning business in Cumming, Ga., attended a rally Mr. Trump held for the Republican candidates in Dalton on Monday night. She said she was disappointed that so many Republican elected officials—including many in Georgia—aren’t more loyal to Mr. Trump. “I can name only a few,” she said, noting that she thought Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler’s support for Mr. Trump’s fight against the November election results proved they were worth voting for in the runoff races.
Anthony Mitchell, a mechanic from Savannah, where Ms. Harris attended a rally, said he would vote for the two Democrats in part to send a message to the nation about Georgia’s changing politics. “I do remember the Jim Crow South,” said Mr. Mitchell, who is Black. Mr. Mitchell, 60 years old, said he had “seen the Black community start participating, and it’s starting to shift things.”
The races, which both parties expect to be close, have been overshadowed by Mr. Trump’s claims since November that the results of the presidential election—which showed him narrowly losing in Georgia—were false.
He has directed much of his ire at Republican state officials, including Gov. Brian Kemp and Mr. Raffensperger. Both men were supporters of Mr. Trump. Mr. Raffensperger launched a statewide hand recount of all five million ballots cast, a process observed by representatives from both parties. That recount found Mr. Biden won. A second recount, requested by the Trump campaign and this time a scan of the paper ballots, found Mr. Biden won.
Ultimately, the state certified that Mr. Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes. Georgia’s 16 electors voted for Mr. Biden in the electoral college.
The lack of success in efforts to overturn the Georgia results has infuriated Mr. Trump. On Sunday, media outlets obtained a recording of a roughly hourlong conversation the president and advisers held Saturday with Mr. Raffensperger and his staff. During the conversation, the president asked Mr. Raffensperger to launch further investigations into the Georgia November election.
The revelation of the telephone conversation dominated the final days of the runoff campaigns, which were required after no Senate candidate won more than 50% of the vote in November. Under Georgia law, those results automatically triggered runoffs between the two top vote-getters.
The candidates’ closing arguments echoed those in November. Republicans have pledged that Georgia’s Senate seats were “the last line of defense” stopping Mr. Biden and the Democrats from having complete control of Congress and the White House.
“First of all, this is the last opportunity we will have to protect everything that we’ve accomplished in the last four years,” Mr. Perdue said Monday on Fox News. “The second thing is [this is] the last line of defense to stop the Democrats from perpetrating this radical socialist agenda. It’s as simple as that.”
“Georgia—the whole nation is looking to you to lead us forward,” Mr. Biden said in Atlanta on Monday. “One state can chart the course not just for the next four years but for a generation.”
The DPST's have shown per usual, that the runoff is about their enduring hatred of Donald J Trump, and will not in any way be assauged in 15 days - when harris, benie, and aoc are inaugurated as POTUS. They plan to chase him and prohibit hi from living in his own home, and hound him with legal lawsuits and criminal charges to the end of his days - and then continue by taking it out on his children and wives .
the author has it correct - the Senate hinges on two seats - and if the marxist DPST candidates win - it is over for freedom and representative democracy in America. The DPST's will stack the SC, and ive themselves immunity from discarding the Constitution and Bill of Rights - and Rule by their own marxist Agenda. maduro will be so proud - when he is invited to tour America as a 'socialist hero and Role model" by harris. Iranians will love harris - they will get their nukes - and likely precipitate nuclear war in the middle east with Israel - the old mullahs don't care - they only want their paradise and 72 virgins.
and - there is real concern over the documented voter frauds in Goergia - denied despite evidence by the DPST's - who don't hesitate to use their tool of election engineering. remember - tammany hall, Daly chicago, LBJ. JFK, Brenda Snipes, and the list is long. the DPST's are doing their best to engineer the election - and ensure the elevation of marxist haris to POTUS and totalitarian ruler of America.
the fate of 'teh' nation may well hinge on two Senate seats, to keep the Radical DPST agenda at Bay. if DPST's take those seats - it is over for free elections and representative Democracy in America.
The Wall Street Journal. Georgia Votes to Determine Senate Control
