Purged Voters, Pence Visit, Latest Senate Polls: GA Election News

ATLANTA, GA — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Georgia wouldn’t have to restore voting rights ahead of the Jan 5. runoff to thousands who were purged from rolls last year. Other news tied to the special election for Georgia's two U.S. Senate seats includes the latest polling, big turnout numbers and another visit is in the works from Vice President Mike Pence.

U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones said restoring the purged voters now might lead to confusion because many may have re-registered on their own in the last year, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Jones also said that the removals were not discriminatory.

The Black Lives Matter Fund and other voting groups had sued Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last week to challenge what they claimed were thousands of eligible voters removed from Georgia’s rolls.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Raffensperger characterized the lawsuit as ill-informed, as were earlier lawsuits from supporters of President Donald Trump.

“This lawsuit from left-leaning groups — like recent ones from the right — was based on conjecture by unqualified ‘experts’ drawn from sloppy analysis,” Raffensperger said, identifying one such expert as an “itinerant journalist.”

Jones urged the voting rights organizations to work with Raffensperger to correct the situation for future elections.

U.S. Senate Candidates In 'Dead-Even Race' Ahead Of Runoff

The candidates for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats are in a statistical dead heat, with Republicans ahead by 1 percent against a margin of error of about 4 percent, according to a poll released Monday by InsiderAdvantage and WAGA-TV in Atlanta.

Both races show nearly identical results: Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue leads Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff 49 percent to 48 percent, with 3 percent undecided; and Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler leads Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock 49 percent to 48 percent, with 3 percent undecided. The statistical margin of error is 4.4 percent.

“The Republican candidates have found their footing, with both finally leading their respective opponent,” pollster Matt Towery posted to the InsiderAdvantage website. “However, that footing is tenuous, given that turnout in absentee ballots cast and early voting thus far has shown a high level of African American voter participation, which if sustained is problematic for the Republicans.”

Towery, a former political analyst for WAGA-TV, put the race in plainer terms for reporter Deidra Dukes.

"I think this poll is telling us where this race is,” Towery said. “There is no room to spare here. It's just a matter of who hits the accelerator and gets their people out to the polls, because as far as the numbers this is a dead-even race."

Pence Returns To Georgia To Rally For Republicans

Vice President Mike Pence is making another swing Thursday through Georgia — this time at airports Columbus and Macon — to headline "Defend the Majority" rallies for Perdue and Loeffler. Gates for the first rally at Columbus Airport open at 10 a.m., with the program beginning at noon; tickets are available here. Gates for the second rally at Middle Georgia Regional Airport open at noon, with the program beginning at 2 p.m.; tickets are available here.

Strong Voter Turnout

Voter turnout is strong in Georgia as early voting began Monday. Through Tuesday, 715,048 Georgians voted in the Jan. 5 runoff, Fox News reported.

Two days into early voting in the general election, 816,242 had voted, according to data from the Georgia secretary of state.

But voter turnout is typically lower in runoff elections. With about three weeks until Election Day, voter turnout was already 38 percent of the total turnout in the last Senate runoff of 2008, the network said.

Georgia Comes Alive Voter Concert

Dave Matthews, Diplo and a one-time group led by Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead are some of the big acts set to take part in the Georgia Comes Alive concert, a virtual music festival to promote voter participation in the runoff elections, Rolling Stone reported.

Portugal. the Man, Big Freedia, Ben Folds, Blind Boys of Alabama, Warren Haynes, and Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood are among the 40-plus artists that will perform Dec. 26. The concert will support grassroots organizations like Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and CivicGeorgia.

Visit the Georgia Comes Alive site to donate and reserve a spot at the online event.

Georgia Comes Alive will start at 3 p.m. and be hosted by SiriusXM’s Ari Fink. You must donate to receive streaming links on the day of the show.