Georgia is looking to end its runoff election system after the brutal, months-long slog that was the Senate campaign between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock.
Walker and Warnock advanced to a special run-off election after neither candidate earned the 50 percent of the vote required to seal the election on Nov. 8th.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger issues a release on the election calling attention to Georgia’s archaic system.
“Georgia is one of the only states in the country with a general election runoff,” Raffensperger said in a release, per the Savanna Morning News. “We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I’m calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the general election runoff and consider reforms.”
Raffensperger cited “the incursion of voting into family holidays” and “the strain on local election officials who had general election deadlines, an election audit and the runoff all within four weeks” as reasons to move away from the system. Raffensperger did not specify which system Georgia should replace its current election laws with, but he did say that Georgia lawmakers have plenty of options from which to case.
Walker conceded the brutal campaign on Dec. 6th, hours after the polls closed, with Walker trailing by more than 100,000 votes. Former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama made cameos in the race, as did current president Joe Biden.
