When the Georgia General Assembly passed the election integrity law, one of its provisions moved runoff elections from nine weeks to four weeks from the general election. This also really shortens the early voting time for the U.S. Senate runoff between GOP challenger Herschel Walker and Democrat incumbent Raphael Warnock.
For most counties there will just be early voting from November 28th to December 2nd. This time frame is important because, in the runup to the Nov. 8th general election, around half of the votes tallied came from early voting (with Democrats leading and Republicans lagging during that period).
There is Saturday voting during a general election but this year a snafu occurred for the runoff. State law appears to stipulate there is to be no Saturday voting after a state holiday— and the day after Thanksgiving is a state holiday originally set aside to remember Confederate Gen. Robert is Lee’s birthday. Last Friday, a Fulton County Superior Court judge ruled that current application law doesn’t include runoffs and early voting to complete the Senate contest can include the Saturday after Thanksgiving. In answering the complaint filed by Georgia Democrats, he cited the main provision in the law that early voting periods should start as soon as possible.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is expected to appeal the judge’s ruling. In the meantime, Chatham and some other counties are already announcing Saturday voting.
The two Senate candidates, especially, hope all this gets sorted out quickly.
