Your morning situation: There are at least in the neighborhood of 240,000 absentee ballots that have been returned to counties but have not yet been counted. Most of them are in DeKalb and Fulton counties.
Which is why, in Georgia, neither the presidential contest nor the U.S. Senate race featuring Republican incumbent David Perdue and Jon Ossoff have been called.
Nationally, Democrat Joe Biden is at 238 electoral college votes, having won Arizona early this morning. Despite claiming victory, President Donald Trump is at 213.
Control of the U.S. Senate remains up in the air, but Republicans are likely to maintain control. In the U.S. House, Democrats remain in control, but Republicans picked up a handful of seats, beating expectations -- meaning that if Biden prevails in the presidential contest, he’d be at the top of a federal government that remains seriously divided.
Back to Georgia:
-- In the presidential contest, Trump and Biden are separated by 117,793 votes, with Trump at 50.65%.
-- Perdue (51%) leads Ossoff by 200,500 votes, and is 46,909 votes above the 50% mark.
-- Democrat Raphael Warnock (32%) will face Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler (27%) in the Jan. 5 special election for that U.S. Senate seat.
According to our AJC colleague Mark Niesse, here are the minimum number of absentee ballots left outstanding in Georgia:
-- Cobb: 13,807
-- DeKalb: 46,441
-- Fulton: 63,778
-- Gwinnett: 6,314
-- Houston: 20,107
-- Statewide: 236,549
More election highlights:
-- Democratic efforts to make significant gains in the state House ahead of next year’s redistricting session appear to have stalled badly. That’s likely to take the steam out of any effort to challenge House Speaker David Ralston for a fifth term as leader of the chamber later this month.
Democrats needed 16 seats to win control of the state House. Though they could win more as more Fulton and Cobb county ballots are counted, at this point, Democrats have picked up two seats, and have lost one. House Minority Leader Bob Trammell of Luthersville was defeated by Republican David Jenkins. Republicans spent $1 million in the effort.
Among House Republican incumbents who are leading but remain vulnerable this morning: Republicans Ed Setzler of Acworth and Deborah Silcox of Sandy Springs. Betty Price, wife of former congressman Tom Price, is losing her bid to return to state House. Democratic incumbent Mary Robichaux is ahead in that race with 59%.
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This morning, Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux laid claim to the Seventh District congressional seat, though we’ve seen no concession from Republican Rich McCormick.
“Three years ago, I stepped up to take on a four-term incumbent. They said this district could never be won by a Democrat, but we knew better. Together, we put this race on the map. And today, we finished the job,” Bourdeaux said in a morning press release.
The secretary of state’s website has Bourdeaux leading McCormick, 51 to 49%.
Regardless, there will be more women in Georgia’s congressional delegation than ever before after Tuesday’s vote.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, Democrat Nikema Williams and Democratic incumbent Lucy McBath won their congressional contests in the 14th, Fifth, and Sixth districts respectively.
At least through January, they will be joined by Loeffler, the first woman U.S. senator from Georgia to serve in Washington. Loeffler’s appointment to the Senate earlier this year made it the first time that Georgia had more than one woman in its congressional delegation at any given time.
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We mentioned disappointing gains for Democrats in the state House. Democrats also appear to be poised to make minor pick-ups in the 56-member state Senate:
-- In District Nine, P.K. Martin, R-Lawrenceville, is running behind Democrat Nikki Merritt, 48-52%
-- In District 56, John Albers, R- Roswell, is locked in a tight race with Democrat Sarah Beeson, ahead but separated by only 576 votes.
-- Democrat Sonya Halpern (45%) may be headed for a Dec. 1 special election District 39 runoff with Linda Pritchett (26%) for the Atlanta seat being vacated by Nikema Williams, who won the late John Lewis' congressional seat on Tuesday.
-- Democrat Michelle Au, a Democrat, is leading Republican Matt Reeves in the District 48 race for the seat being given up by Democrat Zahra Karinshak of Duluth.
-- Former congressman Max Burns (59%), a Republican, has beaten Ceretta Smith for the District 23 seat made vacant by the departure of Jesse Stone, R-Waynesboro.
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Anticipating the attacks ahead from a unified Georgia GOP, the Rev. Raphael Warnock used his remarks Tuesday night to put a spin on negative campaigning that’s likely to dominate the U.S. Senate runoff in which he faces Kelly Loeffler.
“Over the next two months, you’re going to see the petty and personal attacks that have become too much a part of the culture of Washington,” he said. “They’re going to try to distract us and divide us by making us afraid of one another. And here’s why. People who lack vision traffic in division; they cannot lead us and so they will try to divide us.”
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Congresswoman-elect Nikema Williams isn’t stepping down from her post as chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, at least not yet.
Williams said she will pull double duty: Begin her transition to the U.S. House while also working to boost Democratic turnout for the Jan. 5 runoff -- that certainly will feature one U.S. Senate race, and could have another. Depending on how vote counts in metro Atlanta go this morning and beyond.
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