Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is pushing legislation that would end the state’s use of general election runoffs, a recent report from FOX 5 Atlanta said.
In a Dec. 14 statement, Raffensperger called for its removal, saying the runoff system is hard on the counties that have to handle deadlines, election audits and setup of a new election four weeks after the general.
“Georgia is one of the only states in country with a General Election Runoff,” Raffensperger said, quoted by FOX 5 Atlanta. “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.”
Under current state law, if no candidate in the general election gets more than 50% of the vote, the race automatically goes to a runoff four weeks later between the top two vote-getters.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a record-breaking runoff election earlier this month after neither candidate passed the vote threshold needed in the general election, FOX 5 said. At that time, Warnock finished just short of the 50% needed to secure the election.
