Two counties in Georgia are expected to reverse their decision to eliminate thousands of voters ahead of the second round of the January 5 state elections, which will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the US Senate.
Georgia’s federal judge, Leslie Abrams Gardner, said in a filed order Monday night that these two counties appear to have unduly relied on unverified information about changing addresses to invalidate electoral records, Reuters reported.
“Defendants are prohibited from removing any contested voters in Ben Hill and Muscogee counties from registration lists based on National Change of Address data,” she said in the court order. This judge is the sister of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic activist who lost a run for governor of Georgia in 2018.
Of the more than 4,000 records that authorities tried to rescind, the vast majority were in Muscogee County. President-elect Joe Biden won this county during the November elections. Another 150 were in Ben Hill County, which Donald Trump won by a considerable margin.
Nearly 2.1 million people – over 25% of Georgia’s registered voters – voted in the second round of the Senate, which began on December 14. This race will decide whether Democrats control both houses of Congress.
In turn, the outcome will also influence the fate of Biden’s political initiatives, since a Republican-controlled Senate – even if held by a small majority – would likely block his agenda. This also includes Biden’s ability to secure nominees for the cabinet.
Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are facing Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively. Recent data from FiveThirtyEight puts Warnock and Perdue slightly ahead of their opponents.
Warnock and Ossoff’s victories would mean that the Senate would be split between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. In situations where votes on legislation are divided equally, the tiebreaker vote would be cast by Kamala Harris, as vice president.
The deeply significant second round led to a record-breaking fund-raising record. Ossoff and Warnock each raised more than $ 100 million in just two months – outnumbering their conservative opponents. Ossoff, who runs a media production company, raised more than $ 106 million from October 15 to December 16, according to his campaign’s most recent financial report. Warnock, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, raised just over $ 103 million.
Leaders from both parties made campaign stops. Biden – the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since 1992 – and Harris campaigned in the state. Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, also campaigned.
Reuters contributed to this report