ATLANTA — Georgia's Senate runoff election is getting a lot of attention and is drawing scrutiny for its early voting timeline.
It's the second time Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock is in a runoff. He earned his seat in 2020 – winning his runoff race against GOP incumbent Kelly Loeffler. But Georgia has changed its election code and laws since then.
Critics are now pointing to the lack of weekend voting dates in this runoff race. According to Georgia Code, advance voting can't begin on Nov. 27 because of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and a state holiday observed on Friday. Georgia code said an election can't happen within two days of a holiday.
People are claiming that in the last Senate runoff in 2020, Saturday voting happened the day after Christmas.
Let's compare the runoff races and Georgia election laws to see what the circumstances were.
THE QUESTION
Did Georgia allow Saturday early voting on Dec. 26, 2020?
SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, some metro Atlanta counties did allow early voting in the 2020 Senate runoff races.
WHAT WE FOUND
There were two Senate runoff races in Georgia in 2020: Now-Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock was against Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler and now-Sen. Jon Ossoff was facing off against incumbent David Perdue. The runoff election date was set for Jan. 5 in the new year.
11Alive's election guide from 2020 shows at least some metro Atlanta counties had advance voting on the Saturday after Christmas. A website from Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which served as an early voting polling location, promoted Fulton County advance voting dates.
Early voting was available at the stadium on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23, two days before the Christmas holiday. People were also able to vote from Dec. 26 through Dec. 30.
This is where SB 199 comes in. The law amended Georgia's election code in 2016 to prohibit advance voting to take place near a holiday.
11Alive producer Kelsey Stanger reached out to the Secretary of State's Office to see why early voting in the 2020 runoff election was able to happen right before and right after Christmas.
“Post-2020 runoff, this section of the law was revised to provide for more uniformity in early voting days. The law was clarified to state that early voting was only authorized on the days specified in the paragraph and not authorized on any other days, so the law has changed since the 2020 runoff," the office said in a statement.
So yes, there was early Saturday voting even though the Georgia code had the holiday clause. It was amended since then, according to the Secretary of State's Office, to be more clear on what days and how many available hours of voting should be allowed.
