# After four days of early voting, record turnout seen in Georgia runoff Senate elections

Republican Senators Kelly Loefler and David Perdue, and Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Rafael Warnock are in runoff elections that will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.

President-elect Joe Biden visited Atlanta Tuesday a day after the Electoral College confirmed his victory over President Donald Trump in the November election.

During the rally Biden made mention of early voting and the necessity for Democratic voters to vote in record numbers again. “You all did something extraordinary in November, you voted in record numbers,” he said. “Well guess what, now you’re going to have to do it again come January 5. You’ve got to vote in record numbers again.” 

Does the high number of early voters bode well for the incumbents or the challengers?

Warnock’s campaign has aired commercials where Loeffler, his opponent, visits his church in Atlanta, Ebenezer Baptist Church, as his guest last January, but Loeffler referred to Warnock as a “radical liberal” 13 times during their most recent debate December 7.

Perdue on the other hand did not attend a debate scheduled with Ossoff which was held the same night as the Loeffler/Warnock debate. 

This week MarketWatch visited polling stations in Clayton County, a Democratic stronghold that came to national prominence during the November election, and Chatham County, a “purple” county. Warnock is a Chatham County native.

that had 134,210 voters cast their ballots. Warnock (41.57%), a Chatham County native, and Ossoff (57.5%) finished in front of their incumbent opponents in November. 

Russell Kimpson, Jr., 25, walked out of the downtown Jonesboro, Chatham County, courthouse polling station after voting and said he was voting early “to beat the crowds.” Asked if he voted early to better secure his vote, Kimpson said, “There’s no voter suppression taking place here in Clayton County. I can’t speak for the rest of the state though.”

Others voiced their displeasure with all of the political ads on radio and television and the mail they have been receiving as a reason they voted early and “got it out of the way,” said Kel Parrish, a Riverdale resident who voted at the polling station at the Lee Library Headquarters in Clayton County. “Now we don’t have to listen to the b.s.,” he said. “We can ignore all of the posturing from both sides.”

Walking out alongside Parrish, Laverne Knightghist, who identified herself as an independent, said of canvassers, “People have come to my door back to back, don’t they know someone else just came here a few minutes earlier?”

Camille, who didn’t feel comfortable giving her last name, said she and her two adult children voted early because of the holiday season. “There are a lot of distractions during the holidays and I didn’t want that to take away from this,” she said. “We wanted to make sure our votes get counted.”

Thursday night in Savannah at the Chatham County Board of Elections, one of five locations for early voting, Rufus Braynt, 57, still in his work uniform, said, “I have been voting since I had the opportunity so I had to this time,” he said. Asked if he had concerns about continuing on with a Republican-led Senate Bryant said he did. “I kind of have concerns about that and voter suppression.” 

Haywood Clark, 41, on line with his wife, said he had the opportunity to vote that night because of a break in his work schedule. A truck driver, he normally is out of town or on the road at nights. He had plans to vote on January 5. “With us, we’re here because I finally got off and we knew what we had to do, we had to go vote,” said Clark.

Tyler Rinaldi, 27, with his wife, has plans to be out of town this weekend and wanted to vote before he left. “Any other time we’d procrastinate,” he said. Acknowledging the rise in numbers of early voters he continued, “This is more of a duty thing for me.”

Whatever the reasons Georgians are voting early like no other time before.