Georgia certifies Senate victories
ATLANTA — Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on Tuesday certified the runoff election victories of Sens.-elect Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, setting in motion the formal legal process that will seat the two Democrats and give their party control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 2015.
The swearing-in of Ossoff, Warnock and Alex Padilla, who will fill the California Senate seat vacated by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, will create a 50-50 tie in the Senate, giving Democrats de facto control of the chamber because the tiebreaking vote will be held by Harris. She will be sworn in as vice president Wednesday, and the three new Democratic senators are expected to be sworn in Wednesday afternoon.
Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, who like Raffensperger is a Republican, is required by state law to sign off on the certification of the races.
Gabriel Sterling, a top official in Raffensperger’s office, noted on Twitter last week that a representative of Georgia state government must then go to Washington to hand the certification documents over to the secretary of the Senate.
The margins in both races were outside the half-percentage point threshold that allows the trailing candidate to demand a statewide recount under Georgia law.