Georgia is one of the few states that actually requires candidates to win a majority of popular votes in order to win an election. If no one breaks that 50 percent ceiling, then the top two vote-getters are pitted against each other in a runoff election to decide the ultimate winner.
That's what happened in this year's Georgia Senatorial race — for both seats — which means there will be a special election on January 5, 2021 that will not only determine the fate of Georgia, but also the balance of majority power in the Senate. Incumbent Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler will be facing off against respective Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Voter registration for the November elections in Georgia was on October 5. But for these special elections, the cutoff date is December 7, and anyone can register as long as they'll turn 18 by the January 5 election date. Which means 23,000 more teenagers who couldn't vote in the November election could potentially register and vote in the run-offs.
And that could make a huge difference.
Related: earlier this year, the Georgia GOP was caught in some epically unethical voter suppression.
If this sounds stressful but also monumental, I'd advise you check out Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight Georgia for more information.
The race to get Georgia's 23,000 17-year-olds registered to vote [Tanya Basu / MIT Technology Review]
ACLU: hundreds of thousands of voters were purged by the Georgia GOP [BoingBoing]
Fair Fight Georgia Prepares For January Senate Runoff Elections [Noel King / NPR]
What's a Runoff, and Why Are There Two? Here's Why Georgia Matters [Luke Broadwater / The New York Times]
Georgia 202 Runoff Election Registration Site
Image: Kerri Battles for LBJ School / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
