When Georgia’s Senate runoff polls shut tonight, elections officers will start reporting three units of vote totals: 2.1 million solid at in-person
When Georgia’s Senate runoff polls shut tonight, elections officers will start reporting three units of vote totals: 2.1 million solid at in-person early-voting websites, 1 million solid by mail and people solid at Election Day precincts, a determine that officers estimate may very well be anyplace from 500,000 to 800,000.
There shall be little consistency to how Georgia’s 159 counties report their outcomes. Some will publish all of their early in-person votes shortly after the polls have closed. However the mail ballots are prone to be slower. Most of those ballots have already been processed however not counted, which means envelope signatures and addresses have been verified however the ballots haven’t been run by way of vote-counting machines.
Some counties shall be quicker than others to report their outcomes. Fulton County, which incorporates Atlanta and has a repute for being sluggish at reporting vote totals, is already far behind the state common in processing mail-in ballots.
Statewide, 74 p.c of mail ballots have been processed. However Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that’s the largest county within the state, has processed simply 66 p.c of its ballots, based on the USA Election Venture. In neighboring Cobb and Gwinnett Counties, suburbs that swung onerous to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., officers have processed 82 p.c and 76 p.c of their mail ballots — a sign that they’ll report outcomes earlier within the night time.
Different counties anticipated to be sluggish in reporting outcomes embody Henry County, a suburb south of Atlanta that has processed 57 p.c of its mail ballots, together with the Atlanta suburbs of Clayton and Forsythe Counties; Chatham County, which incorporates Savannah; and Houston County, south of Macon.
One massive unknown stays the dimensions of Georgia’s Election Day turnout. The secretary of state’s workplace, which mentioned on Tuesday afternoon that the typical statewide wait time was one minute, shouldn’t be reporting any turnout numbers till after the polls shut. Officers with the Senate campaigns, political events and out of doors teams working within the state had anecdotal knowledge that confirmed a gradual however not overwhelming turnout.