Ga. Runoff Sets Early Voting Single-Day Turnout Record

Facts

• According to Georgia Deputy Sec. of State Gabriel Sterling, voters turned out in record numbers Monday to vote early in the Senate runoff election between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker — the last US Senate race to be decided this election cycle.
• Early voting concludes Friday, with in-person Election Day slated for Dec. 6.
• Sterling tweeted that more than 300k Georgians voted Monday, breaking the previous record of around 233k votes in one day.
• Warnock and Walker are going to a runoff because neither received a majority of the votes in the Nov. 8 general election. Warnock won 49.4%, while Walker finished with 48.5%.
• If Warnock wins, Democrats would hold the 51-vote edge on Republicans in the chamber, while a Walker win would give the GOP leverage in a 50-50 Senate, and complete a sweep of this year's state-wide races by the party.
• Early voting in the Georgia runoff could match the January 2021 Senate runoff, which saw 2M people vote before Election Day. But that year, there were two runoffs, and control of the Senate was hanging in the balance, fuelling turnout numbers.

Sources: FOX News, CBS, Business Insider, and NBC.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by U.S. News. Issues the Democrats hold near and dear, like bodily autonomy, are driving heavy early-voting turnout among young people, women, and Black voters, and that bodes well for Warnock. Even the long lines caused by Georgia’s restrictive voting laws haven’t diminished the enthusiasm of key Democratic voting blocs.
• Republican narrative, as provided by Daily Wire. Whether they vote early or on Election Day, voters should remember how Warnock and Democrats have worked to divide the country. They painted the Georgia voter integrity law as racist suppression, but it’s done nothing to hinder turnout. Walker is the unifying candidate in this race, and he should prevail.