ATLANTA — The Secretary of State’s Office suggests there have been cases of voters splitting tickets which may explain why Senator David Perdue got more votes in Georgia than Donald Trump.
Political analysts Andra Gillespie and Mike Hassinger said they're not surprised by what the numbers show.
It's not unusual for a good chunk of people to vote for president and not vote in any other race on the ballot. But in this case, because more people voted for Perdue than Trump, the numbers suggest some Georgia voters may not have selected a president at all.
“That does suggest that there were some people who perhaps skipped the presidential race and then voted Republican in the down-ballot races,” Gillespie said.
The exit data should paint a clearer picture of whether voters picked a Republican senator and a Democratic president, but as the runoff approaches on Jan. 5, will voters switch sides or remain loyal to their base?
“There's just - there's absolutely no way you vote Democrat in a general and then Republican in a runoff,” Hassinger said.
“The people who turn out to vote are going to be your highest propensity voters, your most sort of partisan voters,” Gillespie said. “And so those aren't the types of people who are going to start splitting tickets or voting from people of the opposite party.”
11Alive reached out to senators Perdue and Loeffler to see if they will continue with their strong support of President Trump throughout the runoff process.
They haven't responded yet but the analysts suggest they will for two reasons:
- Trump supporters are extremely loyal and, two, Perdue and Loeffler would want them to come back to vote in the runoff election because voter turnout is key.
- Based on their actions Monday of calling on fellow Republican and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign.