(ATLANTA, Ga.) ― At 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger joined WSB Atlanta’s Morning News anchor Scott Slade to discuss voter turnout in the upcoming Senate runoff election.

Following the November 8 general election, Georgia law says that any candidate running for statewide office must secure 50% plus one vote to win. Turnout, historically low during runoff elections, has been bucking trends.

“It’s been very strong, in fact, the daily total before this cycle was 237,000. Every day, we’ve been pushing 300,000,” the secretary told Scott Slade. “It’s not like going for a table, where people make reservations, you never know who’s going to show up. We’ve prepared the counties for a large number, with all of their precincts open.”

After the office of the Secretary of State released a statement blocking early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Georgia Democrats sued. The lawsuit moved relatively quickly through the courts, and it was ruled that counties may opt in to Saturday voting.

Raffensperger commented, “Once we found out [that it’s a county decision to hold early voting] we put pressure on them to get as many of those open as possible. It gets down to staffing issues, late-minute, it’s hard to get people out there.”

Raffensperger also cited the US Postal Service for delays, saying that we need to “face the hard facts that they’re unreliable, and not that speedy these days.” To address the delays, “[Voters can] drop off [mail-in ballots] at the county election offices, that’s probably the best thing to do.”

After news broke Tuesday night that President Biden is pushing to have South Carolina be set as first in the 2024 primary cycle, Scott Slade asked Raffensperger’s opinion. “The General Assembly will probably look at that in the next session, perhaps have some studies and committees, and talk to voters and get the counties’ input. Some states have instant runoff, others have plurality.”

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