More than 3 million people have already voted in the election: That's already a record for a runoff in Georgia and Election Day voting hasn't even commenced yet. As Chase noted earlier today, Black and female voters make up a significant portion of returned mail-in ballots, while early voting has been heavy in suburban districts that tend to lean blue. However, we're likely to see increased Republican turnout on Election Day. All this to say what we already knew—this is going to be close. We've got a post up here on when polls will close tomorrow, including a refresher on how voting went down in November and a reminder that we'll run a Slog liveblog tomorrow on the Georgia runoffs starting around noon Seattle-time.
Almost 76,000 new voters have registered ahead of tomorrow's election: More than half of them are under the age of 35. This comes after an intense push by both campaigns to register the 23,000 teens who weren't old enough to vote in the general but are now qualified to do so in the runoffs. Thanks, TikTok.
A former camper provides more fuel for Loeffler’s last-ditch smearing efforts: Last week, Anthony Washington, 30, came forward alleging that counselors at a camp overseen by Rev. Raphael Warnock in 2002 harshly punished him for wetting the bed. He claims they made him sleep outside and doused him with urine. Loeffler continuously invoked this claim over the weekend, accusing Warnock of being involved with child abuse and demanding he answer for what happened. Warnock’s campaign has fiercely denied the former camper’s claims, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been unable to verify independently.
Jon Ossoff has something to say about Loeffler's mudslinging strategy: This is one way to pivot!
holy shit pic.twitter.com/lSq8tKx3Dm
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) December 30, 2020
This is the worst time to have to quarantine for COVID-19: But incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue is taking some time off from the campaign trail to isolate after being exposed to someone with coronavirus. Both he and his wife tested negative on Thursday, but are taking precautions based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Perdue's campaign did not indicate how long the senator and his wife will remain in quarantine.
Self-isolation did not prevent Perdue from blasting Raffensperger for recording that call with Trump: On Fox News, Perdue chortled that he was "raised differently" and that for any "statewide elected official, regardless of party" to "tape without disclosing a conversation—private conversation—with the president of the United States," and then leak it to the press "is disgusting." As for the sitting president of the United States trying to pressure a secretary of state to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Georgian voters? "I didn't hear anything in that tape that the president hasn't already said for weeks now since the November election." That sounds about right.
A staggering $500 million has been spent on advertising during the past two months: When including outside groups, Republicans have outspent Dems, $271 million to $218 million. However, both Ossoff and Warnock's campaigns have outspent Perdue and Loeffler's, a combined $160.1 million to $99.8 million, says NPR. But outside GOP groups have been outspending Dems almost 3-to-1, $171.2 million to $49.8 million. And where's Trump's PAC, Save America, in all of this? Despite asking for donations to help the GOP with both runoffs, his PAC has pocketed the cash.
A tale of dueling campaign rallies: Both President-elect Joe Biden and outgoing President Donald Trump will speak at separate (duh) rallies today in support of their party's candidates. Biden is speaking this afternoon in Atlanta. Meanwhile, Trump will speak in Dalton, Georgia this evening, his first public rally since the audio of him begging Raffensperger to do an election rigging came out in the Post. You can watch the lame-duck president's rally live here at around 6 p.m. PST, probably.
If you can only understand things through the medium of high school debate, FiveThirtyEight has you covered: The nerds over at Nate Silver's blog have laid out the arguments for both a Democratic victory and a Republican victory in Georgia pretty thoroughly. It's up to you to figure out which argument is more persuasive, but the proof will be in the pudding a.k.a. we'll likely know the winners by the end of the week.
