Political Rewind: Polls open on Election Day; A potential Senate runoff; Can Abrams tie Kemp?

Caption

Georgia voters wait in line outside of a Fulton County polling location at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 8, Election Day, ahead of casting their ballots in the crucial midterm election.

Credit: Riley Bunch/GPB News

The panel

Andra Gillespie, @AndraGillespie, professor of political science, Emory University

Rick Dent, political ad expert and vice president, Matrix Communications

Stephen Fowler, @stphnfwlr, political reporter, GPB News

Tamar Hallerman, @TamarHallerman, senior reporter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The breakdown

1. Two and a half million Georgians voted early. Today's votes could bring that number up to 4 million.

• According to the Georgia Votes project, Black voters dominated at the beginning of early voting, but the current demographics show large percentages of white voters aged 55-plus.

2. All eyes are on the race for U.S. Senate. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker are nearly tied in polling.

• Georgia's election laws trigger a runoff if a candidate doesn't reach 50% of votes cast.
• Overseas and military ballots are now ranked-choice ballots, meaning they can be tallied immediately for runoffs while Georgians go back to the polls.

3. Stacey Abrams has polled behind Gov. Brian Kemp for the past few weeks. Can she make up the difference today?

• Abrams' 2018 campaign energized disenfranchised voters under a divisive Republican president. With an unpopular Democrat in office, Abrams' chances may have been slimmer.
• Abrams' campaign team has also cut backtheir ad buys in the weeks before the election. She spent $355,000 in the same week that the Kemp campaign spent over $2 million. Both candidates for U.S. Senate spent nearly $13 million dollars.

Tune in to our 2 p.m. edition of Political Rewind on Facebook or at gpb.org.