Election officials on Friday reported heavy turnout in Georgia on the last day of early voting ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff election that will determine whether Democrats can add to their razor-thin majority in the U.S. Senate.
Voters in some locations faced waiting times of more than an hour to cast ballots in the contest between incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, former football star Herschel Walker, county websites showed.
It is the second time in two years that a Senate race has gone to a runoff in Georgia, a battleground state, because neither candidate secured a majority of the vote.
A victory by Warnock would give Democrats a 51-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate, which would make it slightly easier for them to advance Democratic President Joe Biden’s nominees for judicial and administrative posts. Most legislation still requires Republican support.
Georgia has emerged as one of the most hotly contested states in U.S. politics in recent years and has also been a flashpoint in the battle over election rules.
Last year, the Republican-controlled legislature shortened runoff elections from nine weeks to four weeks, as part of a sweeping overhaul of election laws that Democrats said would make voting more difficult.
Voters now only have five days to cast in-person ballots ahead of the election, down from 17 days, giving fewer chances to those who want to vote ahead of the official election day.
