Extraordinary Election to the United States Senate in Georgia 2020/2021

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Extraordinary Election to the United States Senate in Georgia 2020/2021
3rd November 2020
Runoff election: January 5, 2021
Previous election
2016 ← 		Flag of the US state of Georgia Next election
→ 2022
Raphael Warnock for Senate (cropped) .jpg Kelly Loeffler.jpg
Evaluator Raphael Warnock Kelly Loeffler
Political party Democratic Party Republican Party
choice 1,617,035 1,273,214
32.9% 25.9%
Runoff 2,227,296 2,173,866
50.61% 49.39%

The extraordinary election of the Class III Senate seat in the US state of Georgia took place on November 3, 2020 and had to be decided in a runoff on January 5, 2021.

Raphael Warnock won the election by a few tens of thousands of votes, making him one of two Senators in the United States Senate for Georgia.

Warnock's victory is the first by an African American in a federal election in Georgia. Warnock also becomes the first African American in the US Senate for Georgia, as well as the first Democratic US Senator in the southern US. It is also the first victory for the Democrats in a US Senate election in Georgia since 2000.

background

Georgia's Class III Senate seat was won by Johnny Isakson in the 2016 US Senate election and given to him until 2022. However, he gave up this mandate on December 31, 2019, which is why a replacement became necessary.

The Republican Governor of Georgia , Brian Kemp , appointed Republican Kelly Loeffler as successor in the US Senate after Isakson's resignation until the extraordinary election of a successor . Loeffler was sworn in on January 6, 2020.

There were no primaries for the respective parties. Instead, all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, stood for election.

Result

County Loeffler First Election Results
:
  • 20-30%
  • 30-40%
  • 40-50%
  • 50-60%
    • Warnock:
  • 20-30%
  • 30-40%
  • 40-50%
  • 50-60%
  • 60-70%
    • Collins:
  • 20-30%
  • 30-40%
  • 40-50%
  • 50-60%

    • In the special election on November 3, 2020, Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler accounted for 25.9%, Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock and 20% for Republican challenger Doug Collins . Since none of the candidates running could achieve an absolute majority, a runoff election of the two best placed candidates must be carried out.

    Runoff

    The necessary runoff election was held on January 5, 2021.

    Survey

    According to FiveThirtyEight , Democrat Warnock was an average of 2.1% ahead of incumbent Loeffler in the last polls before the runoff election.

    Postal voting and early voting ("Early Voting")

    According to the United States Elections Project of the University of Florida , almost 3.09 million registered voters had voted by January 4th. That is 40 percent of the registered voters in Georgia, numerically.

    According to the electoral law, absentee votes from citizens and military personnel from overseas who are eligible to vote can still arrive and be counted until Friday, January 8th. This also applies to postal votes from within Germany if they are postmarked up to and including election day.

    In the original election in November, a total of around 5 million votes were cast (including election day voters).

    Result of the runoff election

    County Warnock Runoff Results
    :
  • 50-60%
  • 60-70%
  • 70-80%
  • 80-90%
    • Loeffler:
  • 50-60%
  • 60-70%
  • 70-80%
  • 80-90%
  • 90-100%

    • The polling stations closed at 7:00 p.m. local time (1:00 a.m. CET).

    On the morning of January 6th, after counting around 98% of the electoral districts, the Democrat Warnock was with 50.4% of the votes just ahead of the incumbent Loeffler with 49.6% of the votes. Reputable media houses such as Decision Desk HQ , Associated Press , The New York Times and NBC News then declared Warnock the election winner.

    The turnout was more than 4.4 million votes cast out of the approximately 7.23 million active registered voters in Georgia. This corresponds to a turnout of around 62%.

    Federal political significance of the election

    The outcome of the extraordinary election, together with the runoff election in Georgia between the Republican David Perdue and the Democrat Jon Ossoff for the other class II Senate seat, will decide on the majority in the US Senate: If the Democrats win both elections, Republicans and Democrats would have 50 seats each. Democratic Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would cast the casting vote on votes with a tie from January 20, 2021. If, on the other hand, the Republicans prevail, as they did in the previous Senate, they could block important projects of Joe Biden's new government , because major reform projects require the approval of both houses of parliament. He also needs the approval of the Senate for the cabinet put together by Biden. In the House of Representatives election , the Democrats lost votes, but were able to defend their majority.

    Individual evidence

    1. ^ Nate Silver: Latest Polls Of The Georgia Senate Runoff Elections. December 7, 2020, accessed January 5, 2021 .
    2. ↑ a b c Georgia Early Voting Statistics - 2021 Senate Run-Off Election. In: electproject.github.io. Michael McDonald • Professor, University of Florida, accessed January 6, 2021 .
    3. ↑ Georgia Senate Special Runoff Election Results 2021. In: nbcnews.com. Retrieved January 5, 2020 .
    4. ↑ Georgia Senate runoff election results 2021. In: abcnews.go.com. January 5, 2020, accessed on January 6, 2020 .