Tag: Georgia

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Trump pressures Georgia high election official to ‘discover’ votes and overturn Biden victory

Trump pressures Georgia top election official to 'find' votes and overturn Biden victory

In an exceptional phone call this weekend, President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state by finding votes to shift the number in his favor, as received by NBC News.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger resisted pressure from Trump to change Georgia’s election results, even as the president made veiled threats of possible prosecution if denied. The call was made on Saturday.

Trump, who refused to allow the election, said during the call that he wanted to “find 11,780 votes” to change the outcome in Georgia.

He told Raffensperger, a Republican, that Georgia’s vote had dropped hundreds of thousands of votes and suggested that the Secretary of State announce that he had recalculated the numbers to show a Trump victory.

“Well, Mr. President, the challenge you have is the data you have is wrong,” Raffensberger replied, according to the record.

Raffensperger and the secretary’s general counsel, Attorney Ryan Germany, also pushed back on Trump’s claims that ballot papers had been destroyed or that Dominion had removed parts of voting machines in Georgia that were showing more Republican votes.

The contents of the phone call were first reported by the Washington Post.

Trump, referring to Saturday’s call in a tweet on Sunday morning, said Raffensperger could not answer his questions about alleged election fraud, saying, “He has no idea.” Raffensperger replied on Twitter, writing, “What you say is not true. The truth will come out.”

Bob Bauer, a senior adviser to President-elect Biden, slammed Trump’s actions in a statement on Sunday.

“We now have irrefutable evidence that a president is putting an official of his own party under pressure and threatening to induce him to overturn the legal, certified number of votes of one state and fabricate another in his place,” said Bauer. “It captures the whole, nefarious story of Donald Trump’s attack on American democracy.”

The Senate Minority Whip, Dick Durbin, D-IL, said in a statement that the call warranted a criminal investigation.

“President Trump’s taped conversation with Georgian Foreign Minister Raffensperger is more than a pathetic, rambling, delusional abuse. His shameful effort to intimidate an elected official into deliberately changing and misrepresenting the statutory votes in his state strikes in the heart of our democracy and deserves nothing less than a criminal investigation, “the statement said.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Condemned Trump’s actions as a “despicable abuse of power” that may be incontestable.

“If it is potentially criminal, it may be incontestable. And even if there is no crime, it may be punishable,” Schiff told reporters on Sunday.

Justin Levitt, an expert on suffrage and a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who was a former Justice Department official, believes Trump’s behavior in calling would be in violation of several laws if a prosecutor could prove the president did so white weren’t really thousands of countless ballots that would turn the election around.

These criminal violations could include a conspiracy to violate a federal electoral law that has been used in the past to prosecute electoral fraud and a violation of Georgian state law relating to incitement to electoral fraud, he said.

“It’s pretty appalling that the only question is whether the president is sufficiently detached from reality to believe he hasn’t committed a crime,” Levitt said.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. During the call, President Raffensperger threatened possible legal ramifications if his demands were not met.

“You know what you did and you don’t report it,” Trump said during the call. “This is a criminal, this is a crime. And you cannot allow it. This is a great risk for you and for Ryan, your lawyer. This is a great risk.”

The call comes just days before two major Georgia Senate runoff elections, in which Democratic candidates’ victories in both races would turn control of the chamber, and less than a month before Biden’s inauguration. Trump is holding a rally for the Republican candidates on Monday.

Georgia is one of several states where the Trump campaign or the president’s supporters have fought unsuccessfully to change or invalidate the vote since Trump’s loss to Biden in the November election.

None of the lawsuits, recounts, or investigations in any state have identified the type of widespread electoral fraud or miscounts that would be required to reverse the election in Trump’s favor.

The number of votes in Georgia and other states since the November elections has already been confirmed, and the electoral college has confirmed Joe Biden’s victory.

Biden’s victory in Georgia was a big change in the Republican-controlled state as he was the first Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1992. After the first count showed Biden as the winner of the state, Georgia carried out a recount that showed the same result. Raffensperger confirmed the result on November 20th.

The tight profit margin and the presence of Republicans in key positions have made it a target in the Trump team’s efforts to change the election results. Trump has also pressured Governor Brian Kemp to help reverse the outcome, but Kemp said it was not legal for him to call a special legislative session to appoint a new list of presidential voters.

Biden’s victory is due to be confirmed by a joint congressional session on Wednesday, but a group of 11 Republican senators and elected senators, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, want to delay the move, as do some members of the Republican House. Vice President Mike Pence “welcomed” the move to delay certification, according to his chief of staff, but others like Utah Senator Mitt Romney have been harshly critical of the plan.

Trump is expected to participate in anti-certification protests in Washington on Wednesday.

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Trump, in Taped Name, Pressured Georgia Official to ‘Discover’ Votes to Overturn Election

Trump, in Taped Call, Pressured Georgia Official to ‘Find’ Votes to Overturn Election

At another point, when Mr. Trump claimed that a video of the vote count at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta revealed that an employee was guilty of blatant ballot filling, Mr. Raffensperger replied that the video was selectively edited by Mr. Trump’s attorney. Rudolph W. Giuliani and other lawyers.

“They cut and rolled the video and took it out of context,” said Raffensperger. “The events that took place are nowhere near what was projected.”

When Mr Germany told the President that some of the allegations had been examined by both the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI and found to be untrue, Mr Trump replied that the agents were false.

“Then they are incompetent,” he said. “There are only two answers – dishonesty or incompetence.”

Mr Raffensperger said Mr Trump’s allegation that ballot papers were scanned three times was false. “We conducted an audit and conclusively proved that they were not scanned three times,” he told the president.

The president seemed incapable of envisioning a reality in which he would lose Georgia and repeatedly rewound statistics that he said he won the state by “hundreds of thousands of votes”.

“You look at it by rally size, frankly,” said Mr Trump, adding that he wanted to go over some of the numbers. He claimed that 250,000 to 300,000 ballots were “mysteriously thrown into the reels,” a problem he said in Fulton County.

“We think if you check the signatures, a real signature check in Fulton County, you’ll find at least a few hundred thousand forged signatures,” the president said, citing one conspiracy theory after another.

“People have said it was the highest vote ever,” he told Mr. Raffensperger, claiming that the fraud cases were “many, many times” more than Mr. Biden’s profit margin. “The political people said there was no way they could beat me.”

Michael D. Shear reported from Washington and Stephanie Saul from New York.

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Georgia early vote turnout surpasses three million as U.S. Senate management hangs within the stability

Asian American Christians could be key to victory

Georgia Democratic Senate candidates Raphael Warnock (R) and Jon Ossoff (L) clash their elbows during a “It’s Time to Vote” drive-in rally on December 28, 2020 in Stonecrest, Georgia.

Jessica McGowan | Getty Images

More than 3 million residents of Georgia have already cast their votes in the two runoff elections on January 5th. This is a historic turnout in a competition to determine whether Democrats or Republicans will control the US Senate this year.

Tuesday’s races will be between Republican Senator David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff, and Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock.

If Perdue and Loeffler won their races, Republicans would have a Senate majority of 52 seats, which would allow them to block part of President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda.

The Democratic caucus would have 50 seats if Ossoff and Warnock won. And a groundbreaking vote by Vice President-Elect Harris would give Democrats control of the Senate after six years of GOP majority.

Democrats currently control the House of Representatives and will continue to control the Chamber through 2021. Republicans have a slim majority in the Senate.

President Donald Trump, who has unfounded claims that Georgia’s two Senate races are invalid, will hold a rally for Perdue and Loeffler on Monday.

Biden is expected to travel to Atlanta on Monday while Harris is due to visit Savannah on Sunday to support Ossoff and Warnock. The Democratic candidates have broken records for fundraising during their campaigns, raising more than $ 100 million each in recent months, largely due to small donations.

Ivanka Trump and Senators Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA) wave to the crowd at a campaign rally on December 21, 2020 in Milton, Georgia.

Elijah Nouvelage | Getty Images

Strong allies of the president, Perdue and Loeffler, backed $ 600 stimulus payments as part of the broader bailout package, and attacked Democratic opponents for arguing that those payments were insufficient. However, they reversed course and broke with many Senate Republicans in support of Trump’s calls for $ 2,000 stimulus checks after Congress passed the bill.

Ossoff and Warnock have been working closely with Biden’s plan to give Americans more coronavirus relief and direct controls. They have condemned their opponents for dealing with the pandemic, insisting that GOP senators haven’t done enough to push for a vote on higher stimulus controls in the Senate.

The 3,002,100 early vote accounts for 38.8% of all registered voters in Georgia. This is based on data collected by the University of Florida US election project. The early vote surpasses the previous voter turnout record for a runoff of around 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2008 Senate runoff between Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin.

Data shows Democrats have an advantage when it comes to voter turnout in Georgia. The early voting ended on Thursday. Republicans generally see a higher turnout on election day. Voter turnout has lagged in rural, Conservative Congressional districts in Georgia, particularly in the northwestern part of the state where Trump will campaign on Monday, according to local reports.

Republicans have accelerated their voting efforts. Days before the runoff election, Perdue began quarantine after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. Perdue told Fox News on Saturday that he would not be attending the president’s rally on Monday because of his quarantine.

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Reduction Package deal Grows as Marketing campaign Situation in Georgia Senate Races

Relief Package Grows as Campaign Issue in Georgia Senate Races

The $ 900 billion pandemic relief package that President Trump was late in signing Sunday night gained momentum as an issue in the Georgia Senate runoff election on Monday.

“Aid is on the way,” tweeted Senator Kelly Loeffler Monday morning, welcoming the stimulus package with its billions of dollars in the distribution of vaccines, schools and other beneficiaries and a payment of $ 600 to millions of Americans. She and her incumbent, David Perdue, released a statement on Sunday evening thanking the president for the final approval of the stimulus funds to avoid Mr Trump upset the fate of the bill last week by calling it “disgrace” demanding that direct payments be increased to $ 2,000.

At the same time, the two Democratic candidates – Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock – on Monday criticized the Republican-led Senate for months of keeping its feet on the bill. They called the $ 600 payments too small and took up the president’s request for larger payments to strengthen their position.

“David Perdue doesn’t care about us, and $ 600 is a joke,” Mr. Ossoff told hundreds of people at an outdoor rally with Mr. Warnock in DeKalb County, one of the suburbs of Atlanta, has become increasingly diverse over the past decade.

“You are sending me and Reverend Warnock to the Senate and we will put money in your pocket,” said Mr. Ossoff. He faces Mr Perdue in the runoff election while Mr Warnock challenges Ms. Loeffler.

Mr Perdue has run ads attacking Mr Ossoff for calling the $ 600 relief checks a “joke” when the President also called them far too small. Mr Ossoff wrote on Twitter that Mr Perdue did not even endorse a first round of direct payments last spring.

With election day in Georgia a little over a week away, Mr. Trump’s initial refusal to sign the stimulus package had put Ms. Loeffler and Mr. Perdue in a delicate position. Both had supported the measure, which was passed with a direct payment of $ 600, but both are strong supporters of Mr. Trump and risked angering him if they publicly broke with him about the need to sign the bill.

“The president continues to put both incumbent Republican senators in difficult places during a highly competitive Senate runoff,” said Bill Crane, a longtime Georgia political agent and analyst who worked for candidates in both parties.

Despite the confusion, the president tweeted Sunday that he would make a final campaign appearance on behalf of the two senators in Dalton, Georgia, a carpet-making center in the north. The two races have attracted national attention and a record inflow of money because of their potentially crucial role in determining the balance of power in the Senate.

If both Mr Ossoff and Mr Warnock win, there will be a 50-50 split, with control of the chamber shifting to the Democrats as Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris is able to break ties.

The fate of the two Senators in the unusual double runoff election could be attributed to turnout in Dalton and the rest of northwest Georgia, a conservative area where Mr Trump received 70 percent or more of the vote in most counties. His decision to visit the region where he remains popular appeared to be aimed at last-minute motivation among Republican voters.

The election appeared to be aimed at a record turnout in a runoff election. 2.1 million Georgians had already cast ballots either in places with early voting or by postal vote. The largest voter turnout so far has been in the democratic areas around Atlanta.

Mr Crane said he saw benefits for the Democrats in the early voting, electoral enthusiasm and money. “Democrats kill postal votes,” said Crane, finding, according to an analysis of the Atlanta Journal’s constitution, that 76,000 new voters had registered since the November election.

“That speaks again for enthusiasm and would play for the democratic side,” he said.

Republicans have raised concerns that Mr. Trump’s repeated complaints about “rigged elections” – a false claim he made to explain his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr. – will deter voters in their party from voting to decide for the runoff election in the Senate. Mr Crane said the message from far-right commentators on electoral fraud had lasted in the state and some Georgians were confused about whether their votes would count. “Georgia is still at odds over whether we should vote at all,” he said.

With the early polls going through December, Mr Warnock and Mr Ossoff’s campaigns on Monday focused on encouraging voters to vote. Several rappers performed at their drive-in event in the parking lot of a Baptist church, including Shelley FKA DRAM, JID, Tokyo Jetz and BRS Kash.

Mr. Ossoff, who runs a documentary production company, and Mr. Warnock, the pastor of a historic church in Atlanta, encouraged their supporters to go to early voting venues or drop their ballots in. “The whole country is watching voters in Georgia to see what we will do at this historic moment,” Ossoff said.

Both Mr Ossoff and Mr Warnock – as well as Democrats on Capitol Hill – viewed the economic reviews as a profitable problem and had used both the lower payments and the president’s opposition to the stimulus package to increase their chances in Georgia. On Monday, hours before the House of Representatives decided to move ahead with the $ 2,000 stimulus checks requested by Mr. Trump, Ossoff tweeted, “@Perduesenate, when are you going to sign $ 2,000 aid checks for Georgians?”

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Advert Spending Soars in Georgia Races With Stakes Far Past Georgia

Ad Spending Soars in Georgia Races With Stakes Far Beyond Georgia

Both Mr Warnock and Mr Ossoff have run ads highlighting stock sales and business transactions by Ms. Loeffler and Mr Perdue after learning about the coronavirus earlier this year but before it spread across the country.

“Kelly is for Kelly,” read a recent ad from Mr. Warnock’s campaign after Ms. Loeffler was named the richest member of the Senate. “Warnock is for us.”

Even some of the ads that are supposed to tone down the polarizing race slip in some attacks. In a recent ad from Mr. Perdue, seven women are gathered by a fireplace, chairs in a circle, complimenting the senior senator. But at the end, one woman adds, “I know David won’t let our police down and core the military.”

With all of the negative ads, TV viewers in Georgia may or may not notice the increasingly national message. In fact, the radio waves become so saturated that political ads are often run in a row, sometimes taking up entire blocks of commercials for a full television show. In the past seven days, campaigns and outside groups spent more than $ 50 million on television and broadcast 88 unique political ads across Georgia.

On some days in December, more than a third of all ads in Georgia were political. During the 5pm to 6pm time when local news programs aired and were a common target for political campaigning, more than 60 percent of all ads were political. Both numbers surpassed ad saturation during the general election when numerous races vied for airtime.

With so many ads covering the radio waves, both political strategists and ad professionals admit that returns can plummet.

“It’s like World War I, when they sat there in the trenches and shot at each other for weeks, but then nothing happened because everyone was in trenches and bunkers,” said Ken Goldstein, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. He said it was like “bombarding impenetrable bases”.

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Biden campaigns for Democrats in Georgia Senate runoff

Biden campaigns for Democrats in Georgia Senate runoff

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks during a rally in support of Democratic Senate candidates in Atlanta, Georgia, December 15, 2020.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – A triumphant president-elect, Joe Biden, went to Georgia on Tuesday to lead an election rally for two Democratic Senate candidates in the state that earned him his biggest disgruntled win in the 2020 presidential contest.

The drive-in rally in Atlanta was intended to benefit Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both of whom will run run-off against incumbent Republican senators on Jan. 5. It was Biden’s first campaign event as president-elect, held just a day after the election campaign. The electoral college confirmed its victory over President Donald Trump.

The two runoff elections are about control of the U.S. Senate, and thus the power to either give the green light to Biden’s candidates and his ambitious (and expensive) domestic agenda, or vice versa, to block them.

If either of the two Republican Senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, win their races, the GOP will retain its current control of the Chamber, and Biden can expect fights for every candidate and every bill.

Biden had no illusions on Tuesday about the importance of these races. “I need two senators from this state who want to get something done, not two senators who are just getting in each other’s way,” he said. “Send me these two men and we’ll control the Senate and change the lives of the Georgia people.”

After the angry November victory fueled by suburban and black voters, Democrats rely almost entirely on replicating the record turnout they saw last month. It’s a major challenge – special elections traditionally attract far fewer voters than presidential elections – but Biden urged his supporters to buck the trends.

“Will Georgia break the record for voting in these Senate elections? I think so,” he said. “But there are a lot of people who bet you won’t. There are a lot of people who think, ‘Georgia broke the record for votes cast in the presidential election, there is no way you can do it again.'”

“Are you ready to prove them wrong? I think you are. I think Georgia is going to shock the nation with the number of people voting on January 5th,” Biden said.

In a state with a long history of racial voter suppression, Biden reminded people that Loeffler and Perdue supported a recent lawsuit launched by the Texas Attorney General that sought to disqualify millions of Georgia votes in election results.

“Your two Republican senators fully embraced what Texas told the Supreme Court,” he said. “You were fully in favor of nullifying nearly 5 million votes in Georgia. You may want to remember that January 5th is coming.”

Poll averages currently show both Senate races neck to neck, although historical trends favor incumbent senators.

Biden also drew a sharp contrast between the two Democrats in the race and their Republican opponents when it comes to much-needed funding for coronavirus aid.

“We need funding for testing and vaccine distribution. We need to get money into people’s pockets right now,” he said. “We can do so much to make the lives of the people of Georgia and the country so much better, and we need senators who are ready.”

After Biden’s trip, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is also expected to visit Georgia to bolster Ossoff and Warnock, although concrete plans have not yet been released.

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Biden will journey to Georgia to spice up Democrats in Senate runoffs

Biden will travel to Georgia to boost Democrats in Senate runoffs

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign stop in Atlanta, Georgia on October 27, 2020.

Brian Snyder | Reuters

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden will travel to Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday to blunt for Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, his first campaign trip since he was elected president in November.

The stakes could hardly be higher: Ossoff and Warnock challenge incumbent Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in runoff elections on January 5th, the results of which determine which party controls the US Senate.

After the November elections, the Senate will initially consist of 50 Republicans, 46 Democrats and two independents who will meet with the Democrats. If Warnock and Ossoff both win their races, the Democrats will have 50 reliable votes, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris casting a groundbreaking 51st vote.

With 51 votes in the Senate, Biden could realistically hope to pass some of his most comprehensive (and expensive) domestic policy proposals, including a massive green jobs program. He would also receive carte blanche endorsement for his candidates, which would greatly accelerate the pace at which a Biden government could take over the reins of federal bureaucracy.

Despite decades of Republican dominance in Georgian politics, Democrats have reason to be optimistic this year: Biden narrowly won Georgia’s referendum, a surprising victory that made him the first Democrat in more than 20 years to win the state in a presidential race .

However, there is no guarantee that Biden’s luck will repeat itself in the Senate races.

The poll averages currently show both races neck to neck. But Loeffler and Perdue benefit from the tenure and a historic advantage: Georgia has not sent a Democratic senator to Washington in a generation.

Democrats repeat the 2020 game book

With just under a month to go, the Democrats are repeating many of the tactics that worked to their advantage in November, emphasizing early voting, public health, and grassroots outreach.

Biden’s trip coincides with the start of the early voting, which begins Monday in Georgia. Democrats invest heavily in getting their voters down early instead of expecting people to queue at crowded polling stations on January 5th. These efforts are particularly urgent given the current surge in coronavirus, which is expected to peak early next year.

The Biden campaign hasn’t released the details of the event on Tuesday, but in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Biden held drive-in rallies that attracted large crowds and kept people a safe distance from one another.

U.S. Senate Democratic nominees Jon Ossoff (R) and Raphael Warnock (L) wave at supporters during a rally in Marietta, Georgia on November 15, 2020.

Jessica McGowan | Getty Images

So far, the Democrats have not personally sent their party’s stars to Georgia in the runoff game, but have preferred to hold virtual events.

Former President Barack Obama, arguably the party’s biggest star, led a virtual rally with Ossoff and Warnock on Dec. 4, where he spoke openly to supporters that Biden’s national agenda was at stake.

The January results, Obama said, will “determine the course of the Biden presidency and whether Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can legally honor all of their commitments.”

“If you don’t have a majority when the Senate is controlled by Republicans who are more interested in disability and stagnation than progress and helping people, they can block almost anything,” Obama said.

Republicans flood the zone

While Democrats give priority to public health and early voting in the runoff elections, Republicans are taking a radically different approach: they flood the state with high-profile surrogate motherships while also cheering their grassroots voters by promoting false conspiracies, which President Donald Trump and not Biden was the rightful winner of the state’s referendum.

In the past few weeks, several popular Republican Senators have visited Georgia to promote Loeffler and Perdue: Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott from Florida, Tom Cotton from Arkansas, Joni Ernst from Iowa and Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee, and Senator-elect Bill Hagerty from Tennessee.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Senator Steve Daines of Montana, and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, all Republicans, are also reportedly planning to swing across the state in the coming days.

But no one embodies the Republican Party’s two-part strategy in Georgia more than Trump, who made the state a core part of his conspiracy theories about the presidential election – and his efforts to reverse the legitimate results.

Last weekend, Trump led a massive rally in Valdosta, Georgia that was allegedly a campaign event to empower Loeffler and Perdue. But the president spent much more time on the stage making his own grievances than he did about the two Republican senators. The participants were close together, hardly a mask in sight.

US President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and US Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler arrive for a rally on December 5, 2020 in Valdosta, Georgia, USA.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

For nearly two hours, Trump vacillated insisting that fraud and corruption constituted a “stolen” victory in Georgia in the presidential election, begging his supporters to fight for him by voting in the state’s runoff on January 5 .

“You know, you’re angry because so many votes were stolen. It was taken away. And you say, ‘Well, we won’t [vote]”Said Trump.” We can’t do that. We have to do just the opposite. If you don’t vote, the socialists win and the communists win. The Georgia patriots must show up and vote for these two incredible people. “

Trump also fueled his ongoing battle with his former ally, Brian Kemp, Republican governor of Georgia, who has so far refused to take steps Trump is asking him to take to overthrow the referendum.

US President Donald Trump hosts a campaign event with US Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler at Valdosta Regional Airport in Valdosta, Georgia, United States on December 5, 2020.

Dustin Chambers | Reuters

“Your governor could very easily stop it if he knew what the hell he was doing,” Trump told the crowd in Valdosta. “Quit very easily.”

Since election day, Kemp has approved several handcounts in the state, all of which have confirmed Biden’s victory.

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What We Know In regards to the Voting in Georgia So Far

What We Know About the Voting in Georgia So Far

The deadline for registering to vote in the runoff elections in Georgia expired Monday, bringing the state closer to personal voting in two crucial Senate races.

The January 5 contests will determine whether two Republican incumbents, Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, will keep their seats. If their Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock both win, the Democrats will claim control of the Senate.

Now it’s all up to the Georgia voters. Here’s a look at the next steps.

Some voters are already casting ballots in the runoff elections – the state started sending postal ballots last month. The personal early voting begins on December 14th. It happens to be the same day that members of the electoral college will officially vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Georgians are increasingly choosing to cast their ballots early and by post. Almost a million voters have already requested postal ballot papers for the run-off elections, according to state election officials, including more than 600,000 people who were entitled to receive the ballot automatically.

According to the Georgian Secretary of State, more than 1.3 million voters cast postal votes in November’s parliamentary elections. But more than 71,000 people who did not vote in the general election have requested ballot papers for the runoff ballot, according to state data compiled by Ryan Anderson, a data analyst in Atlanta.

So far, according to the State Secretary, around 43,000 Georgians have returned their postal votes for the runoff election. About 1,000 of these voters did not cast ballots in the general election. Postal ballot papers must be requested by January 1st and received by January 5th to count. However, voters should act earlier to avoid delays in the mail.

Both parties encourage their voters to cast their ballots early. Democrats hope to retain an advantage that helped their party beat President Trump in the November election when Mr Biden won nearly 400,000 more postal ballots in the state.

Republicans are trying to fill that void because they fear January weather and the worsening coronavirus pandemic could keep some of their constituents at home on election day. After months of Mr Trump’s disinformation campaign against postal voting, his own party has begun targeting its constituents in Georgia with leaflets and digital ads asking them to request postal voting.

Not all Republicans in Georgia are convinced: when Vice President Mike Pence encouraged voters to vote by post while the state was on a campaign freeze, he encountered a few boos, according to the Atlanta Journal constitution.

Runoff elections have traditionally been relatively sleepy competitions with a lower turnout that favored Republicans due to a drop in Democrats after the general election. (The runoff election itself was developed by white Georgians in the 1960s to dilute the power of black voters.)

Not this year. A flotilla of high-performing political stars has already entered the race, including former President Barack Obama and Mr. Trump. Mr Biden is expected to fight for the Democrats just before election day.

Television advertising prices are rising amid an astonishing influx of political spending. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on the two races before January 5th.

The stakes couldn’t be higher: Senate control will effectively set the parameters of Mr Biden’s first term. A Republican-led Senate would make it difficult for him to fill his cabinet, pass laws, and advance his political priorities.

Both parties expect a significantly higher turnout than in the last Senate runoff in 2008, although few analysts expect numbers close to the five million voters who voted in last month’s general election.

Modeling the electorate is not easy: never before has a runoff election in Georgia determined the balance of power in the Senate – or has it been held in the middle of a pandemic.

In November, Mr Perdue received 49.7 percent of the vote, just below the majority he would have needed to avoid a runoff, while Mr Ossoff had 47.9 percent, a difference of about 88,000 votes. The field was overcrowded in the other Senate competition: Mr. Warnock finished with 32.9 percent of the vote and Ms. Loeffler with 25.9 percent.

Democrats see opportunities in the changing demographics of the state. The drive to reach new voters, led by Stacey Abrams, drew an estimated 800,000 residents to vote – a wave that helped propel Mr. Biden’s victory in Georgia.

Republicans believe that some voters who supported Mr Biden will want a review of democratic power in Washington. However, their efforts were hampered by Mr. Trump’s refusal to end the previous competition.

Some Republican strategists fear that Mr Trump’s attacks on the presidential election results will hamper their efforts to win back some of the suburban moderate voters who fled their party in November.

A fringe group of conservative voters is also encouraging Republicans to boycott the election in support of Mr Trump’s baseless claims of fraudulent vote counting that could undermine Republican margins.

The Georgia State Election Board extended some emergency provisions from the November election, such as the retention of dropboxes for postal ballot papers. Some of the rules have been adjusted to encourage faster counting as the new Congress is expected to be sworn in on January 3rd.

Districts must now start scanning and processing ballot papers at least a week before the election, but cannot start counting or tabulating until election day. These new rules should result in faster results starting on election night, though a close race will almost certainly end in recounts and litigation.

Some Democrats and voting rights groups have raised concerns about access to voting and possible repression.

Electoral officials in Cobb County, Georgia’s third largest county, plan to open fewer than half of the general election polling stations, reducing the number from 11 to five.

Some of the locations that are being closed, like the Smyrna Community Center in Smyrna, are in neighborhoods with large black populations. Voting and civil rights groups sent a letter to the district election officer on Monday asking her to keep all eleven locations open.