The high runoff contests for the Georgia Senate were on the razor’s edge on Tuesday night, with election results coming, with US Senate control, the scope of the Biden government and the future of the Republican Party fluctuating. on the scale.
At around 10 pm, state election officials were able to count more than 80 percent of the vote, bringing the huge consequence to their heads much faster than the torturous November presidential race that took days to happen.
Although the end result was not yet resolved, it was clear at the end of the night that the outcome would be close and that the key indicators seemed to tilt the advantage narrowly in the direction of the two Democratic contenders.
With 81% of the votes counted, Republican candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue were slightly ahead, with both 51%. Their respective Democratic opponents – Atlanta pastor Raphael Warnock and former documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff – took 49%.
But election analysts warned of the rise of Republican leadership. Between 8 pm and 10 pm, as results came from across the state, the Ossoff v Perdue and Warnock v Loeffler races changed direction, with the candidates taking turns leading the way.
Crossing the conflicting data were trends that analysts suggested seemed marginally promising to Democrats. A large number of votes from the Atlanta area – which was crucial to Joe Biden’s victory against Donald Trump in November – had yet to arrive.
In counties that declared all, or almost all, their votes, turnout in the Republican areas dropped noticeably in the presidential race in November, while, in contrast, in Democratic-tipped counties, candidates improved markedly on Biden’s track record.
Like Dave Wasserman of the non-partisan newspaper Cook Political Report pointed, participation in most African American counties was impressive. “The participation of blacks seems, frankly, phenomenal,” he wrote on twitter.
Throughout Tuesday, polling stations across the state reported a steady stream of voters who challenged Georgia’s devastating rise in coronavirus infections to vote in person. Georgians went to great lengths to participate in what has been described as elections that could set America’s course for a generation.
According to state election officials, the number of Georgians who voted before election day – either by absent vote or by early vote – reached 3.1 million. That alone broke the 2008 record for a second round of the Senate in Georgia, which attracted a total of 2.1 million voters.
By the time the final votes are counted, election officials have suggested that the total could reach almost double the 2008 record.
The enormous electoral energy revolving around the second round was reflected in the main counties where the results of both races could be won or lost. Dekalb County, which covers the eastern suburbs of Atlanta, saw attendance on Tuesday even exceeding that of the presidential election day in November.
Participation in the second round to overtake that of a presidential race was extremely rare and was hailed as a positive sign by Democrats, as Biden sensibly defeated Trump in Dekalb County by 83% to 16% in November. However, a similar story of high turnout was also being told in major Republican-inclined counties, such as Forsyth and Cherokee counties, where long lines were witnessed outside the polling stations.
Stacey Abrams, who was seminal in building a Democratic ground game through his group Fair Fight, told CNN just before the polls closed that constant attendance indicated high levels of voter interest across the state. But she added that both parties appear to be attracting voters in large numbers, pointing to a fierce battle.
“We didn’t see the flood. We see a very constant flow of voters on both sides of the corridor, which indicates that it will be a very close race, ”said Abrams.
The large share of early, absent and election day voting was a reflection of the exceptionally high risks of the two second rounds. Their outcome will determine which of the two main parties controls the United States Senate.
Democrats need to win both contests if they want to balance the chamber on 50/50 seats in the aisle. A balanced split would give Kamala Harris, the elected vice president, the decisive vote to break the tie and, with that, the ability to shape the Senate’s legislative program.
The president-elect himself summed up what was at stake on the eve of election day at a rally in Atlanta. He told the crowd that “a state can set the course not just for the next four years, but for the next generation”.
With data tentatively leaning in the Democratic direction as the night progressed, excitement grew around the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Warnock is a pastor and Martin Luther King Jr grew up and preached frequently. The 134-year-old church was firmly closed, its doors covered with coronavirus notices, but outsiders could feel the history taking shape.
Cheryl Johnson, an electoral engagement activist and community historian, said: “We wait, we wait. We know that Georgia is undergoing a major change. We believe that we can lead the country, as we always lead it in many different ways. We have a history of great leadership. We have always been transformers. “
Warnock would be Georgia’s first black man elected to the Senate. Johnson was on Auburn Avenue, which she noted was once the heart of black wealth in America. “We had millionaires from one end of the street to the other. All of these churches you see were built by African Americans who had just come out of slavery.
“So this is where we take our strength. This is where Dr. King was raised. People think it is a surprise for Atlanteans, but it is not, because Atlanta is known for being born and developing leadership ”.
Johnson, 54, heard Warnock preach at the church. “He can break it down intellectually, but when it comes to talking about issues that impact our community, issues of social justice, homelessness, health issues, police reform, he comes from the tradition of the Baptist Church, which is passionate, engaged . Does it challenge people to think about who you are? If you say this is it, what does it mean? “
The fear of problems or even violence outside polling stations did not appear to have materialized. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, told CNN that “we have never seen an election so secure and with more integrity”.
His Republican colleague, Gabriel Sterling, said there were few incidents of difficulties with voting mechanisms. At a news conference, he said that only 0.1% of scanning machines across the state did not work, while 0.02% of counting machines had to be replaced.
The Herculean destabilizing efforts of both parties to get their supporters to the polls on Tuesday was Donald Trump’s mercurial influence. The president continues to refuse to admit defeat in the presidential election and has persisted in a campaign of falsehoods targeting Georgia with unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.
Trump lit a wick during the second round on Saturday when he called Raffensperger and tried to convince him to override the certified results of the presidential race. The conversation was taped and leaked, and led to calls for Trump to be prosecuted for electoral crimes.
The president’s antics left some Republicans in Georgia fearful that his claims that his victory was “stolen” would dissuade supporters from appearing at the polls on Tuesday. But it remained to be seen how much impact his incendiary interventions would have, and in which direction.
Republican contestants tried to go beyond Trump’s baseless complaint about the presidential count and focus his campaigns on what they described as the “radical socialism” of his Democratic rivals. Radio waves were flooded with an unprecedented number of political ads on both sides, with campaigns by the four candidates spending more than $ 833 million in the state, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
However, Loeffler, the richest member of the Senate who is also proud to be the most conservative in the House, announced that she will vote to challenge the polling station’s results at a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.