While voters living in Georgia have to cast another ballot in the runoff for U.S. Senate, thousands of military and overseas voters already got their votes in weeks ago.
Georgia’s voting law passed last year instituted instant-runoff voting for military and overseas voters, allowing them to pick their second-choice candidates upfront in the general election rather than having to vote again in a runoff.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Over 3,740 military and overseas voters have returned ballots for the runoffs, according to the secretary of state’s office. Many of them contain instant-runoff choices, but state election data doesn’t differentiate between instant-runoff votes returned before the general election and ballots issued since then.
Instant-runoff voting allows registered Georgia voters living overseas to avoid another election four weeks after the general election.
State legislators allowed instant-runoffs when they shortened the runoff period from nine weeks, which left little time for ballots to be returned by mail.
For those voters who supported a Libertarian in the general election, their second-choice candidate will receive their votes in the runoff between Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
Critics of Georgia’s runoff system want to extend instant-runoff voting to all voters, eliminating the need for a costly second election when no candidate wins a majority. The idea will likely be proposed in next year’s legislative session.
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