ATLANTA — Every election is important.
Every election, in its own way, is historic.
But this election in Georgia – from how close it’s been to its importance to the overall race – has been unlike any in the state’s history.
As of now, neither President Trump nor former Vice President Joe Biden will clear 50% of the overall vote. According to the American Presidency Project, the last time that happened in Georgia was 1996, when Bob Dole won the state with 47%. Before that, it was Bill Clinton in ’92 with 43% of the vote. Those races had a prominent third-party candidate in Ross Perot. They were also decided by fewer than 5% of the vote – the only two times that’s happened in Georgia since the Civil War.
You’d have to go pre-Civil War to find a race decided by this small a number of votes. In 1848, Georgians voted for Zachary Taylor over Lewis Cass by less than 3,000 votes. That’s an election where barely 92,000 - as opposed to this year, where the count has approached 5,000,000.
As for margin of victory, right now Biden and Trump are separated by less than half of a percentage point. The last time that happened? It hasn’t. This will likely be the closest vote for president in Georgia’s history.
One thing is certain: there will be no run-off for this office. Under a law passed in Georgia in 1968, the leading presidential candidate gets the electoral votes, with no majority requirement.
That’s not the case in Georgia’s two Senate races.
We’ll definitely see one, likely two, runoffs for two pivotal U.S. Senate seats. Here are the key dates voters need to know:
- Nov. 18, 2020: That’s when voters can request an absentee ballot for the senate run-off candidates.
- Dec. 7: That’s the deadline to register to vote.
- Dec. 14: That's when early voting begins for the run-off.
- Jan. 5, 2021: That is Election Day. It will mark the conclusion of a most unique election in the state of Georgia.