Peach Tree Times

Despite claims of voter suppression from Democrats, Georgia voter turnout reached a record-high in this year's midterm election, with one-third of all accepted ballots being cast by minority voters. As the state's two Senate candidates Herschel Walker and Rafael Warnock failed to reach the required majority vote, the race is headed to a runoff taking place in early December – an election that remains significant even though the Democrats have control of the Senate.

"Georgia voters cast just shy of 4 million ballots during this year’s election, a record high number for a midterm election in the state, despite allegations by Democrats that Republicans were intentionally trying to suppress minority votes," the National Review wrote in a Nov. 11 Twitter post.

Despite Democrats' allegations of Republicans intentionally attempting to suppress the minority vote, there were a record 3,957,598 voters who cast ballots in the 2022 midterm election, according to Georgia Secretary of State data, according to National Review. The near 4 million number was slightly up compared to 2018's race, which had a total of 3,949,905 – a difference of 7,693 ballots.

According to Georgia Secretary of State voter data, 33.1% of the total number of ballots accepted were submitted by minority voters, belonging to the black, Hispanic and Asian demographic. There were 2,537,210 ballots accepted, with 839,032 of those being minority ballots.

With neither candidate able to capture the required 50% majority vote in the 2022 midterm election, the U.S. Senate race in Georgia is headed for a runoff race to be held Tuesday, Dec. 6, with early voting starting as early as Monday, Nov. 28. The Republican candidate Walker will once again face incumbent Democrat Warnock.

While Georgians cast a record number of midterm election ballots, there was a slight drop in the percentage of registered voters who participated. The National Review reports about 57% of Georgia’s roughly 7 million registered voters cast ballots in this year's election, down from 61% in 2018, when there were 6.4 million registered voters.

Party control of the Senate is no longer on the line, as this past weekend's Senate race results announced in Arizona and Nevada has determined the Democrats will hold control with a 50-49 seat advantage. However, as an article from Roll Call points out, there are significant differences in Senate operations between those in a deadlocked chamber, having the vice president as a tie-breaking vote and one with the slimmest of majorities. With just a one-seat advantage (51-49), Democratic committee chairs would yield additional powers compared to a 50-50 Senate.