🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Democrats have already secured control of the Senate for the next Congress, but that isn't stopping Georgia voters from casting their ballots in the state's Senate runoff election.
After neither incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock nor Republican candidate Herschel Walker were able to earn more than 50 percent of the vote in the November 8 midterm election, the closely-watched race was kicked into a runoff, sending campaigns back on the trail until December 6.
Warnock had a narrow lead with 49.4 percent of the vote, while Walker received 48.5 percent of the vote.
On Monday, the state's first day of early voting, more than a quarter-million people voted, breaking the state's record for the highest number of ballots cast in a single day of early voting. Early voting for the Senate runoff will continue until December 2.
"Just...WOW! GA voters, facilitated through the hard work of county election & poll workers, have shattered the old Early Vote turnout, with 300,438 Georgians casting their votes today," Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's top elections official, tweeted on Monday.
"They blew up the old record of 233k votes in a day. Way to go voters & election workers," Sterling added.
Because Democrats managed to hold onto both their seats in Arizona and Nevada, as well as flip one in Pennsylvania, Georgia's runoff will only expand their Senate majority or keep the chamber in a 50-50 split.
Daniel Franklin, an associate political science professor at Georgia State University, told Newsweek that the stakes of the runoff may be even higher for Democrats because a 51st seat "will not only give them more wiggle room in terms of overall policymaking, but it'll also give them control of the internal politics of the Senate, and that will improve their chances of getting bills to the floor."
Because Democrats are typically the ones to use early voting in Georgia, Monday's record turnout should theoretically help Warnock.
However, Trey Hood, who has been conducting political research at the University of Georgia for more than two decades, told Newsweek it will ultimately depend on whether in-person voting on Election Day will mirror the high early voting turnout.
If this week's record is on par with the rest of the runoff cycle, then it will be difficult to say that these numbers benefit the Democrats. But, if they account for a large portion of total votes, it could be good news for the incumbent senator.
"The Republicans were advantaged in Georgia up until 2021, which had some pretty astronomical turnout," Hood said. "So if turnout is really high, I think it would benefit the Democrats, but I don't know that it's going to be high."
This year's runoff is under a condensed time period, giving candidates only four weeks to convince their supporters to head back to the polls, compared to the nine-week contest of last year's Senate runoff election.
Franklin said that high early voter numbers could still result in the same rate of turnout given how few days there are of early voting. Last year, there were three weeks of early voting.
The shortened early voting period has also raised questions as to whether it will hurt the key strategy that Democrats relied on in the 2021 runoff.
High overall voter turnout could also help Walker, who faced a challenging first week of runoff campaigning.
Earlier this month, Democrats seized on a number of gaffes the Republican made at a series of rallies across the state, where he praised "gas-guzzling cars" that produce "good emissions" and revealed he "wanted to be a werewolf" because they can kill vampires.
Walker was also criticized for being unsure about whether voters were allowed to cast their ballots early in a runoff election.
Ultimately, experts said the runoff election will be less about convincing voters to cast their ballots for a different candidate and more about motivating supporters to vote a second time.
Republican strategist Jay Townsend told Newsweek the favored candidate will be the one with the best get-out-the-vote effort.
"People know who they're going to vote for one way or the other. It's just a matter of motivating your base and getting them back to the polls one more time," Hood agreed.
Townsend said Walker shouldn't underestimate Warnock and his campaign experience.
"This is [Warnock's] fourth campaign in the last two years. He knows how this is done better than any other U.S. senator," Townsend said.
11/29/22, 3:40 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Daniel Franklin.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek senior reporter based in New York City. She has covered U.S. politics and culture extensively. ... Read more