Georgia Runoff election between Raphael Warnock, Herschel Walker sees record 3.3 million voter turnout: Report

Georgia voters turned out in heavy numbers for the Senate runoff election that saw Herschel Walker facing off against incumbent Raphael Warnock of the Democratic Party.

Gabriel Sterling, an election official in Georgia, said on CNN that 3.3 million people voted in the runoff election, which, according to him, is a record.

In the interview, Sterling said, “What I do know is we have record turnout today, record turnout in the early voting, record usage of absentee ballots, so the people of Georgia were very excited to vote”, further adding, “We had more people vote early in the midterm runoff voted in the entire midterm runoff four years ago.”

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The early voting had closed on Friday. This day was declared the “single biggest day of early voting ever,” by Georgia election officials. Around 353,000 individuals had turned up in person to cast their votes on that day.

This turnout on Friday had shattered Georgia’s earlier record of 233,000 voter turnouts in a single day in early voting.

The results of the election are again proving to be a closely-fought affair. CNBC reports that 65% of the votes were counter by 8:45 PM. Walker was leading with 50.8% of the votes to Warnock’s 49.2%.

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However, things soon took a blue tinge by the time 82% of the votes were counted. This is when Warnock took the lead with 50.3% of the votes to Walker’s 49.7%.

1,707,580 early votes were cast in the election while 155,471 votes were cast by mail. Warnock turned out to be the top candidate in both cases.

The result of the Georgia votes will be a crucial one for both Democrats and Republicans. If Warnock secures a win, the Democrats will keep their control over the US Senate. Walker’s win will be crucial for Donald Trump, who has already announced himself as a candidate for the 2024 US presidential elections and had been a strong backer of the former NFL running back.