The tight race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has intensified in this swing state for the 16 Electoral College votes. Georgia has become a hotly contested swing state that will be critical in deciding the winner this year.
Trump’s pitch to voters has focused on the economy, immigration and crime. Harris, since taking over as the Democratic standard-bearer after President Joe Biden dropped out, has promised a new era and has campaigned on improving the care economy, protecting abortion rights and guarding democracy.
US Election Results: Live Updates
In 2020, Biden won Georgia with 49.5% of the vote to Trump’s 49.2%. In 2016, Trump won Georgia with 51% to Hillary Clinton’s 46%.
Here are the key developments in the state.
• Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer with Georgia Secretary of State’s office, told CNN a big chunk of the outstanding roughly 400,000 ballots in the state are in-person votes from metro Atlanta.
• Former Trump aide Brian Jack wins Georgia's 3rd District
• The FBI has warned that many of the bomb threats which temporarily suspended voting in Georgia, have been traced to Russia.
• Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor known for charging Donald Trump in the 2020 election interference case, has won her bid for reelection.
• Twelve voting locations in Georgia had their hours extended due to bomb threats, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
• Trump has a lead in Georgia with more than a third of the estimated votes counted. Not every county has reported results.
• Democrat Nikema Williams wins reelection to US House in Georgia's 5th Congressional district
Democratic Representative Nikema Williams secured another term in the US House, according to Associated Press.
• Female voters have outpaced their male counterparts by a wide margin in early voting, with 56% of early ballots cast by women.
• Ronald Jordan (41), a voter in Atlanta, Georgia, expressed concern about many of his Black male friends who decided to skip voting this election. Despite strongly favouring Harris, Jordan couldn’t sway his peers, who showed apathy toward both candidates. At a polling station in Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold, the turnout reflected a significant gender gap, with women far outnumbering men among Black voters.
•A US judge rejected a Republican effort to prevent seven Georgia counties from accepting certain absentee ballots, sharply criticising the party’s legal approach as discriminatory against political opponents. The Republican National Committee had filed a lawsuit in federal court in Savannah on Sunday, challenging the decision by these counties to accept absentee ballots over the weekend and on Monday.
•At least two polling sites targeted by the hoax bomb threats in Georgia were briefly evacuated on Tuesday. Those two locations in Fulton County both re-opened after about 30 minutes, officials said, and the county is seeking a court order to extend the location's voting hours past the statewide 7 pm deadline.
• Around 4,031,093 mail-in and early in-person votes have been cast, while 344,100 mail-in ballots have been requested.
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