ATLANTA — Today is the deadline to register to vote in Georgia for those who wish to participate in the Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections.
For those who are 17 and eager to vote, you can legally register today and vote on Jan. 5 if you'll turn 18 by that time, according to the Secretary of State's Office.
Early voting in the Senate runoff races - which pit Republican incumbent Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue against Democratic challengers Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively - begins a week from today, on Dec. 14.
You can register to vote online at the Secretary of State's website here, and, if you are wishing to vote by mail using an absentee ballot, you can request one from the Secretary of State's online request portal here.
The Georgia races will determine the balance of power in the Senate - after the results of the November general election, the Republicans have 50 seats and the Democrats have 48. If Warnock and Ossoff were to win, it would deadlock the Senate at 50 seats each, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaker vote under an incoming Biden administration.
A poll conducted exclusively for 11Alive late last week showed that the races remain very tight, with Ossoff outpolling Perdue 50-48 and Warnock outpolling Loeffler 52-45.
In the November voting, Perdue led Ossoff by more than 80,000 votes, but did not clear the 50% + 1 threshold to avoid a runoff. Warnock finished first in the open special election for Johnny Isakson's old seat, edging Loeffler in a field that included some 20 candidates with 32.9% of the vote.