The second Senate election in Georgia was too close to the call, as polls closed Tuesday night, according to NBC News.
The races will determine which party controls the Senate for the next two years. Democrats seek unified control of Congress and the White House. Republicans want a check against President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda.
In a contest, Republican David Perdue, 71, is up against Democrat Jon Ossoff, 33, who runs a documentary production company. Perdue is seeking a second term in the Senate after the first ended Sunday.
The other special election pits Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, 50, against Democrat Raphael Warnock, 51, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached. The seat, which opened after former Republican Party Senator Johnny Isakson retired earlier, will be re-elected in 2022.
A poster is seen as voters line up for the U.S. Senate election, at a polling station in Marietta, Georgia, USA, on January 5, 2021.
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Both elections were ranked after no candidate got more than 50% of the vote in the general election.
Biden won Georgia by 11,779 votes in November. NBC News did not call for its victory over President Donald Trump in Peach state until three days after election day, as officials counted the ballot boxes by mail.
More than 3 million Georgians voted before Tuesday, which meant a historic turnout for the state’s by-elections. Second-round election data and voter history data suggest Democrats had an advantage in early turnout. Republicans expected a strong display Tuesday.
The average waiting time at polling stations was around a minute across the state until Tuesday, according to Georgia’s secretary of state. Republican election chief Gabriel Sterling said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that turnout on election day could range from 600,000 to 1.1 million voters. It is difficult to predict the exact numbers before counting the ballots.
Several venues will close later than 7 p.m. due to day delays. The latter is a Tift County polling place that will close at 7:40 p.m. ET. Voters who are in line before the polls close can legally vote.
The pair of escapes in Georgia are the two most expensive Senate races in history, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
This story is unfolding. Please check for updates again.
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