More than 4.4 million people cast ballots in Georgia’s runoffs

More than 4 million people participated in Tuesday’s runoff elections in Georgia, shattering historical records for runoff participation and indicating the sheer scale of attention surrounding the elections that will determine the control of the Senate for at least the next two years.

A vote tally by The Associated Press as of Wednesday morning had indicated that just over 4.4 million votes had been counted, blowing past the state’s vote totals for the 2016 presidential race and nearly rivaling the total participation levels of the November presidential election.

The runoff totals had surpassed previous runoff participation records even before Tuesday’s in-person votes were counted, as more than 3 million chose to vote early in the Peach State. Early voting and mail-in ballots saw expanded participation in this cycle due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has led officials to urge Americans to avoid crowded situations.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) was declared victorious early Wednesday morning over incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff declared victory over Republican incumbent David Perdue on Wednesday as vote tallies showed him leading Perdue by around 16,000 votes, roughly 0.37 percent of the vote total, which would allow for Perdue to request a statewide recount.

Warnock’s victory coupled with Ossoff’s potential win would lead to a 50-50 deadlock in the upper chamber, but Democrats would have control due to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s (D) tie-breaking vote. Warnock will become the first Black senator from the state of Georgia, while an Ossoff victory would mean that he would become the youngest current member of the Senate.

Experts had previously expected Tuesday’s vote totals to surpass previous runoff totals while speculating that President Trump’s recent unproven claims of fraud and corruption surrounding Georgia’s election system due to his own defeat in the state could possibly suppress turnout among Republicans.