Georgia Runoff Early Voting Turnout Has Democrats Celebrating

25 counties across Georgia kicked off early voting Saturday in preparation for the December 6 runoff election for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA). And turnout was “massive.”

There was a question about whether Saturday’s voting could even happen. Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger at first said that Saturday voting was fine. But later, he reversed himself pointing to a state law against voting two days following a holiday.

Senator Warnock and the Democratic Party of Georgia went to court. Their argument was that this state law did not “apply to runoffs.” When a Fulton County judge agreed, the secretary of state’s office then “appealed to the state Court of Appeals, which upheld the initial ruling.”

The Georgia Republican Party, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the Republican National Committee took the issue to the Georgia Supreme Court, which denied their request. Republicans do better when a smaller number of voters come out.

But in DeKalb County, it took two hours for voters to make their way through the lines. The town of Marietta opened its polls at noon in Cobb County.

Reverend Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church is the same church where Martin Luther Kings Jr. preached his sermons of peaceful protest. His opponent Herschel Walker kicked off his football fame in Athens Georgia. However, some question has arisen about whether Walker lives in Georgia or Texas.

Katie McCarthy voted at the Joan P. Garner Library at Ponce de Leon in Atlanta. The 36-year-old said she faced a line around the building, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution::

‘We’ve been stuck in lines that were like four hours long before. So we knew we had Saturday open and if we needed to wait we’d be able to.’

Atlanta voter Harry Johnson said “it’s hard:”

‘It was more convenient Working. it’s hard to vote when you get off at 5 o’clock and try to reach here and you’ve got a thousand people in line.’

Senator Warnock brought attention to the problem in his speech:

‘We had to take them to court just so you could vote today.”

The reverend said in a later press briefing that getting Saturday opened to voting was “a win for democracy:”

‘People, especially working people, wage earners, are the ones I was thinking about. Who may not have the luxury of voting during a weekday. This gives them one more opportunity, and the people are once again voting with their feet. They’re showing us that they need this. They’re using it.’

Johnnie Brooks of Atlanta, 78, headed out to vote early on Saturday. He arrived at 7:00 am but found an already long line at the Metropolitan Library:

‘I was trying to beat the crowd. But of course it was already crowded when I came.’

The youngest Joe Biden delegate Victor Shi tweeted about “massive rates” of voters:

‘NEW: data from Fulton County, GA (the state’s most populous county) shows 18-24-year-olds turning out at massive rates. In fact, they make up the third-highest turnout among any age group (just slightly behind the 50-54 & 55-60 age group). The youth of Georgia are showing up.’

In Fulton County over 11,100 votes had been turned in by 1:30 Saturday afternoon, according to the Chief Operating Officer for the Secretary of State’s Office, Gabriel Sterling.

Over 7,500 people voted in Gwinnett County, and 3,400 voted in DeKalb County. Nearly 1,500 voters cast their ballots in Cobb County. Some counties allowed Sunday voting. And it is a state law that every county in Georgia has “early voting Monday through Friday.”

Christie writes Gloria Christie Reports & Three White Lions Substack newsletters and a Three White Lions podcast available on Apple, Spotify, etc. She is a political journalist for the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery (in progress). Find her here on Facebook. Or at Three White Lions her book on Amazon Kindle Vella and the Gloria Christie Three White Lions podcast on Apple, Spotify, etc.