- Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called for an end to general election runoffs.
- Raffensperger cited the strain on elections officials and the tough deadlines for offices.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday called for an end to the state's runoff system for general election contests, which, if successful, would curb a decades-long practice that in the past two years has drawn enormous political attention to the state.
"Georgia is one of the only states in the country with a General Election Runoff. We're also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I'm calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the General Election Runoff and consider reforms," Raffensperger said in a statement.
"No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday," he continued to say. "It's even tougher on the counties who had a difficult time completing all of their deadlines, an election audit and executing a runoff in a four-week time period."
Raffensperger — a Republican who serves as the top elections official in the state and was easily reelected to a second term last month — announced his position a week after Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won a full six-year term by defeating Republican Herschel Walker in a runoff on December 6.
In the November general election, Warnock edged out Walker 49.4%-48.5%, but since neither candidate met the 50 percent threshold, the race was extended for an additional four weeks.
In January 2021, both Warnock and now-Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff found themselves in dual runoffs with Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, after neither of the four candidates cleared the 50% mark in the November 2020 general election. Warnock and Ossoff won their respective races, which gave Democrats a majority in the US Senate just days before President Joe Biden entered the Oval Office.
After those two contests, the GOP-controlled Georgia legislature overhauled the state's voting laws through SB 202, which cut the time between the general election and the runoff from nine weeks to four weeks.
When asked about additional reasoning for Raffensperger's decision, a spokesman for the his office told NBC News that Georgia election workers were "burned out" after the prolonged election season, pointing to a growing level of discontent with the system among campaigns and voters alike.
Last month, the Warnock campaign, along with the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, filed a lawsuit to permit November 26, 2022 — the Saturday after Thanksgiving — to be an early voting day. Raffensperger wanted to block voters from heading to the polls that day, arguing that it would be illegal to hold early voting one day after a state holiday.
The Democratic-led suit made the case that the law didn't apply to runoff contests, which were conducted in a more condensed timeframe.
State courts sided with the plaintiffs and voting took place on November 26 in select jurisdictions across the state.
While Republicans had historically performed well in Georgia runoffs, Democrats in recent years have put into place a highly effective get-out-the-vote operation. During the state's early voting period, Democrats turned out strongly, erasing the Republican edge and once again sending Warnock to the Senate.