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The Georgian governor's race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp is too tight.
Georgia requires that a candidate gets at least 50% of the votes to win, and although Kemp had several early points on Wednesday morning, the Abrams campaign foresaw an early election, which which means voters would return to the polls on December 4.
"There are tens of thousands of correspondence ballots in the state, many of whom, in our opinion, are Abrams voters," said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams Campaign Director.
Kemp also expressed confidence in his chances. "There are still votes, but we have a very strong lead," he said. "People, make no mistake, calculation is on our side to win this election."
The stormy elections, considered by many as a battle for the soul of Georgia, have been darkened by the repression of voters. Abrams, who was the minority leader in the House of Representatives and would be the first female black governor in US history, was largely dependent on the fact that voters of color came out in large numbers to win the election. victory in the dark red state. Kemp, who oversaw the elections because he refused to resign from his position as secretary of state, allegedly participated in multiple attempts to abolish black voting in Georgia and purge voter lists.
Under Kemp's leadership, the process of verifying voter information by the state has jeopardized applications for registration from more than 53,000 people, 70 percent of whom are black voters. The authorities also attempted to close polling stations in black majority counties.
Kemp's office publicly announced, two days before the elections, without evidence, that it would open an investigation into the Democratic Party of Georgia for allegedly hacking voting machines. The Democrats described the move as "reckless and unethical stratagem", pointing out that Kemp should have resigned from his post before reporting to the governor 's leadership in order to avoid a political conflict. interests.
And Georgian voters reported intense difficulties in Tuesday's polls. The state had to keep the polls open late after several black majority constituencies encountered technical difficulties with voting machines, including a lack of power cords. Voters reported waiting lines of several hours and other obstacles some are attributed to voter suppression efforts.
"If you aspire to the highest office in the state in which you pledge to protect the citizens of your state, how can you actively try to prevent the citizens of your state from exercising their the most basic right? ", former President Barack Obama asked while campaigning for Abrams.
Kemp and Abrams have both stored money for eventual runoff. Kemp has raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars for this effort since July, while Abrams has raised about $ 100,000.
At the Abrams Election Night in Atlanta on Tuesday night, the crowd, mostly women of color, was clearly thrilled by the historic nature of the Abrams campaign and the risk of breaking the glass ceiling in Georgia. . But unlike Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016, it seemed like people were realistic and lucid about a possible loss.
"No matter what happens, that's history," said Deedee, 52. "I even told my driver Uber that the ride was part of the story."
Abrams has campaigned to expand Medicaid and its voting rights across the state. She grew up in Mississippi. She is one of six children of a mother librarian and a shipyard father. She graduated from Yale Law School and was open to the fact that she is still in debt of $ 200,000 on student loans and credit cards. She is single and she wrote love novels while switching to local politics.
Kemp embraced President Donald Trump and his politics throughout the race, insisting on gun rights and threatening, in an ad, to "rally" undocumented immigrants himself into his huge pick truck -up.
The tiny race between two so different candidates has captivated the nation. Obama flew to Georgia to win Abrams, as did celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Will Ferrell and Michael B. Jordan. Winfrey urged women and people of color to resist voter suppression efforts.
"When you can feel what is the right thing to do," she said, "you can not be influenced by propaganda and fear."
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence organized rallies for Kemp. The old charge was that Abrams was "not qualified" to be governor – despite his law degree from Yale and his six years at the head of the State House.
Emma Gray contributed to the reportage of Atlanta.
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