Early in-person voting began Monday in Georgia’s two US Senate runoff elections.
Early in-person voting could be even more important in the Jan. 5 runoffs than in the general election because of the short time frame for voters to request and send back ballots by mail, as the two races decide which party will control the US Senate.
Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are trying to unseat Republican US Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively.
No one expects the turnout to be as high as was seen in the general election on Nov. 3, but Bernard Fraga, an Emory University professor who studies voting, said overall turnout could reach four million.
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.
Early in-person voting in the Peach State, which President Trump narrowly won in November, could be even more important for Republicans. Both parties may also drive voters toward the early polls with the Christmas and New Year’s holidays looming before Jan. 5.
Melissa McJunkin, 40, voted in Rome, a solidly Republican area in northwest Georgia, and cast her ballot for Perdue and Loeffler, saying they “will help make decisions based on what I think is the right choice.” She’d heard allegations of voter fraud in the general election and was a bit worried about the integrity of the vote in the runoff.
“I’ve never had a problem before now trusting it, but now I feel like there may be something going on that I don’t trust,” she said.
Towanda Jones voted in downtown Atlanta for Ossoff and Warnock and dismissed the fraud allegations, which have been repeatedly denied by election officials.
“The system is working as it should, and I think our current president is just a sore loser,” she said.
The 54-year-old Black hairstylist said police reform was her main priority.
“I have two grown sons,” Jones said. “The amount of Black lives that have been lost due to police brutality upset me.”
Each of Georgia’s 159 counties must offer at least one early voting location during business hours, with many in metro Atlanta offering multiple locations, extended hours and weekend voting. Early voting will continue through Dec. 31 in some places.
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN
