On Wednesday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – with Covid-19 still lurking in the background of a very contentious statewide election and Senate runoff election, announced that the state runoff races scheduled for December 1 would be moved back to the Senate runoff date of January 5, 2021.
The move means that in districts or precincts that have no other runoffs, they will be able to consolidate the three statewide races of the two Senate spots, along with one PSC race, onto one date. This will not only save some money for those districts but also the exhausted elections workers who just saw record turnout over weeks of early voting and counting, all with concerns of Covid-19. “This is an untenable situation for these men and women, to try and run both of these elections,” Raffensperger said. “This will protect the integrity of both elections and make for better election administration. It has the added benefit of saving taxpayers millions of dollars.”
For some districts however, the runoff must go on.
Raffensperger’s purview extends to statewide elections – but not to some others, such as the district attorney race for the Western Judicial Circuit or the Special Election runoff in U.S. House District 5 to fill the late John Lewis’ seat. Until of course the winner of the November general election for U.S. House District 5, Nikema Williams, is sworn in on January 18.
In the meantime, an appallingly low number of people will make their way out on December 1 – or of course mail-in or early voting, to decide who will sit in Congress for about six weeks. Former Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall and former Morehouse College President Robert Franklin are looking to be the short bridge from the giant shadow of Lewis to Williams.
Besides some bragging rights and a little bit of a backdoor entry into a very exclusive club, six weeks of a $174,000 salary for House members comes out to roughly $18,000. Not too shabby for six weeks of work.
For a little bit of turnout comparison, Williams – who was chosen by the Democratic Party of Georgia to become the nominee in the general election, won her race with 301,784 votes, with total votes cast of 354,423.
Back in the September special election Franklin and Hall moved to the runoff with 9,987 votes and 11,104 votes respectively. Total votes cast was 34,976, about a tenth of the votes from November.
One thing to watch in this seat: Williams was chosen by the executive committee of the Democratic Party of Georgia to be the nominee for October. Williams also just happened to be the state party chair at the time and her selection, though widely hailed, did ruffle a few feathers of those who thought the selection was unfair or rushed without fair competition.
It is likely that Williams will be able to sit in her new office for some time but there could be a primary in 2022. Stay tuned….
