Georgia breaks early voting record in Walker-Warnock runoff

More than a quarter million voters cast their ballots on Monday in the Georgia runoff election, setting a new state record for early in-person voting.

Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling, who had been tracking the numbers throughout the day, celebrated the achievement and praised poll workers.

"Just...WOW! GA voters, facilitated through the hard work of county election & poll workers, have shattered the old Early Vote turnout, with 300,438 Georgians casting their votes today," Sterling tweeted Monday evening. "They blew up the old record of 233k votes in a day. Way to go voters & election workers."

Sterling added in another tweet, "We are working on final numbers, but for context, the last day of Early Voting in 2018 was 233,252 and that is the record for Early Voting that will fall today."

In the Nov. 8 election, neither Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock nor GOP candidate Herschel Walker captured a clean majority of voters to avoid a runoff. Warnock received about 49.4% of votes cast, while Walker trailed at 48.5% - by about 37,000 votes.

The race will decide whether Democrats gain a majority in the Senate or if Republicans maintain the 50-50 split in the previous Congress.

Early voter turnout for the runoff has been highest in several Democratic leaning counties around Atlanta such as Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb County, according to CBS News.

The Georgia Senate candidates have taken different approaches to early voting. Warnock campaigned throughout Thanksgiving weekend urging his supporters not to wait until the day of the runoff, Dec. 6, to cast their vote, reports Fox News.

In contrast, Walker did not hold any public events over the Thanksgiving weekend. He also did not mention early voting specifically at his first rally after the holiday.