Early voting begins in Ga. Senate runoffs
ATLANTA— What could be the main event in Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoffs — early in-person voting — got underway Monday, with lines trending shorter than during the first days of early voting for the general election.
More than half of the record 5 million votes in the Nov. 3 general election were cast during its three-week early voting period. Early inperson voting could be even more important in the Jan. 5 runoffs because of the short time frame for voters to request and send back ballots by mail. The two races will decide which party will control the U.S. Senate.
No one expects turnout to be as high as Democrats the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff try to oust Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively. But Bernard Fraga, an Emory University professor who studies voting, said overall turnout could reach 4 million.
President Donald Trump has relentlessly pushed baseless claims of widespread fraud in the general election. In an overnight tweet just hours before early voting started, he continued his ongoing attack on Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, pushing him to take action or risk harming Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler’s chances.
“What a fool Governor @BrianKempGA of Georgia is,” the president tweeted. “Could have been so easy, but now we have to do it the hard way. Demand this clown call a Special Session and open up signature verification, NOW. Otherwise, could be a bad day for two GREAT Senators on January 5th.”
In contrast to the first day of early voting in October — when more than 125,000 people cast ballots and some people lined up for hours — few long lines were reported Monday.
One question is how many mail-in ballots will be cast in the election. By Friday, 1.2 million mail-in ballots had been requested and 200,000 returned. In the general election, Democrat Joe Biden won 65% of the 1.3 million absentee ballots that were returned in Georgia, a record fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Fraga said it’s possible that mail-in ballots, if anything, will be even more favorable for Democrats in the runoff because of continued attacks on the integrity of mail-in voting by Mr. Trump and many Georgia Republicans. That means early in- person voting, which Mr. Trump narrowly won in November, could be even more important for Republicans. Both parties may also drive voters toward the early polls with Christmas and New Year’s holidays looming before Jan. 5.
Republican attacks on mail-in voting also worry some Democrats. Meghan Shannon, 36, voted in person for Mr. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock on Monday at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta, partly driven by fears that absentee ballots will be overly scrutinized.
“I think the absentee ballots are going to be questioned when they count the votes,” Ms. Shannon said. “I wanted to be here in person so my vote is counted and it’s uncontested.”