Related video: Georgia election official debunks one Trump conspiracy theory after another
Georgia election officials reported record-level turnout for the two crucial runoff elections that could shift the balance of power in the US Senate from a Republican to a Democratic majority, as GOP incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue take on challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
More than 3 million early votes have been cast in an elections expected to see record turnout for a runoff races; as votes trickle in from across the state, Democrats benefitted from early voting gains and higher turnout, even surpassing votes in some counties for Joe Biden in November’s election.
Georgia Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger does not expect final results to become clear until Wednesday morning, while the Loeffler campaign has found itself caught up in a late racism scandal over an attack ad that appeared on Facebook in which the skin colour of Reverend Warnock, who is Black, appeared to have been made artificially darker.
In an election eve rally and in radio interviews before polls closed, President-elect Joe Biden urged to Georgia voters that a Democratic majority in Congress could mean larger Covid-19 relief cheques for Americans, from the current $600 to $2,000, a move staunchly opposed by current Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
The president has meanwhile continued to amplify election fraud conspiracies as he pushes for GOP candidates, telling his followers that “emboldened Radical Left Democrats” have sought to steal “victory” from Republican voters.
Check out The Independent’s live coverage and analysis below.
