Nearly half a million ballots were cast Monday in the first day for early voting in Georgia’s two runoffs for Senate, more than on the first day of early voting in the general election, said state officials.
All told, 482,250 votes were recorded on Monday, according to the Georgia secretary of state. The total dwarfs the roughly 128,000 votes cast in the Peach State on the first day of voting for the Nov. 3 general election.
The first day total includes those who voted in person (roughly 168,000) and those who sent in absentee ballots (roughly 314,000).
Both Georgia Senate seats are up for grabs in the Jan. 5 runoffs. Republicans must win one of them to retain their slim majority in the upper chamber.
With so much at stake, the races have attracted hundreds of millions in spending already, according to independent audits.
The races pit Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.
In the general election, candidates needed to win more than 50% of the vote for an outright victory. Mr. Perdue finished just under 50%, forcing the runoff with Mr. Ossoff.
Mr. Warnock received nearly one-third of the votes on Nov. 3, more than any other candidate. Ms. Loeffler had to fend off a challenge from a more conservative Republican, Rep. Doug Collins.
Mr. Collins immediately endorsed Ms. Loeffler after his defeat. Their combined vote total was more than Mr. Warnock’s, but still below 50%.
Both runoff races are neck and neck in the polls.
Georgia saw slightly more than 5 million votes cast in the general election. Runoffs typically draw less turnout, and there will be no presidential race atop the ballot, but some election experts have predicted as many as 4 million votes could be cast in the runoff.
Consequently, both sides have flooded the zone with get-out-the-vote organizations, convinced whichever side has the best ground game will win.
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