Georgia SOS Calls For End To General Election Runoffs

ATLANTA, GA — Days after the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is asking for general election runoffs to end across the state.

“Georgia is one of the only states in the country with a general election runoff,” he said in a news release Wednesday. “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.”

The Georgia General Assembly is scheduled to meet in January. Raffensperger said the assembly could review several options to address ending general election runoffs, but he did not provide options for them to consider.

The announcement comes a little more than a week ahead of Christmas. The runoff between U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and opponent Herschel Walker was held shortly after Thanksgiving on Dec. 6.

“No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday,” Raffensperger said in the release. “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.”

The Secretary of State's office began its audit of the U.S. Senate runoff Tuesday.