Georgia Senate election results: Jon Ossoff declared runoff winner as ‘militia gathers’ at state Capitol

This from Kemp spox Cody Hall, via WSJ reporter Cameron McWhirter.

Militia members are gathering around the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta, as Pro-Trump rioters are attempting to take matters into their own hands and prevent Congress in DC from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college win. 

The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander is following the story as it unfolds.

Jos Ossoff has beaten David Perdue in the final Georgia runoff election to decide control of the Senate, according to Associated Press.

The AP called the result at 4:17 EST on Wednesday.

Story to follow.

Democrats have taken back control of the Senate after Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Georgia Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler by razor-thin margins in a pair of runoff elections on Tuesday.

The Associated Press called Mr Warnock’s win in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday and determined Mr Ossoff had won several hours later, around 4:15pm on the East Coast.  

While the new Senate Democratic majority will be a massive — and unexpected — asset for President-elect Joe Biden as he takes office later this month, the news of Mr Ossoff’s victory barely made a ripple in Washington on Wednesday, as throngs of rioters who support Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol.

Congress was forced to evacuate the building in the middle of proceedings to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory from November.

The Independent’s Griffin Connolly has the story.

Ossoff held a lead of about 25,000 votes, or about 0.56 percentage points, over Republican David Perdue out of about 4.4 million cast when the AP called the race at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday.

The call was made after an analysis of outstanding ballots showed there was no way for Perdue, who was seeking a second term, to overtake Ossoff’s lead.

Tens of thousands of outstanding votes remain to be counted, but the vast majority were in six Democratic-leaning counties that Ossoff was winning.

Many of the ballots left to be counted were mail votes, a form of voting that overwhelmingly favored Ossoff. The remaining votes left to be counted in Republican-leaning areas that favored Perdue were not enough for him to catch up.

Georgia elections officials said there were about 14,000 outstanding overseas and military ballots that had been issued but not returned. Those must be received by Friday in order to be counted. Gabriel Sterling, a top Georgia elections official, said they expected only a fraction of those ballots would be returned in time. -  AP

While the world has been watching the chaos unfold in Washington DC, the Georgia runoff continued with Jon Ossoff the deciding result in control of the Senate.

Ossoff said he is looking forward to working with Joe Biden on beating Covid-19 and getting Americans financial relief – those juicy $2000 checks the president-elect promised if Democrats won the Senate.

Fulton County spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt told the AP that counting in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections was halted “out of an abundance of caution”.

“We have also closed all of our offices in downtown Atlanta,” she said.

Fulton County had about 7,500 main-in absentee ballots left to upload, according to the elections director speaking to AP earlier on Wednesday.

After a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, Georgia’s governor and secretary of state were evacuated as a ‘militia’ gathered around the state’s Capitol building.

The pause in counting would not have an impact on the result of the elections, which have been called for Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

Brian Kemp said at a press conference late Wednesday that the mob that stormed the US Capitol was a “disgrace and quite honestly un-America”.

He said he would extend an executive order to activate the Georgia National Guard ahead of the state’s legislative session that begins on Monday, according to AP.

“It is unimaginable that we have people in our state and in our country that have been threatening police officers, breaking into government buildings,” he said inside the Capitol. “This is not the Georgia way and it is not the way of our country.”

Kemp was reportedly earlier evacuated from the Capitol after ‘militia’ begin gathering in protest.

“The GOP must discard and disavow Trump once and for all, end its attacks on the electoral process, & commit fully to the peaceful transfer of power,” he said in a tweet.

For Independent Voices, Sean O’Grady asks how a previously reliable Republican state flipped blue.

“After November he became even more unhinged and more frightening. The net result must have been to frighten some potential supporters away, and to make Democrat voters even more determined to turn out to stop the madman from securing a vicarious victory and vindication for his attempts to steal the presidential election.”