Georgia shattered a voting record Monday after over 239,000 voters went to the polls early in a single day in order to choose their preferred candidate in the 2022 senate runoff election between Democrat incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican opponent Herschel Walker.
The news broke from the announcement of Interim Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling, who revealed that more than 239,160 Georgians voted Monday, topping the prior early voting record of over 233,252 votes in 2018, per CBS News.
Georgia’s runoff election is especially contentious given allegations by Democrats that a 2021 voter integrity law signed by incumbent Governor Brian Kemp would stop millions of people from exercising their right to vote.
White House occupant Joe Biden seemed to imply that the new laws may launch a new and perhaps darker era similar to Jim Crow, saying the legislation would make it look like “Jim Eagle.”
When asked if Biden was wrong for comparing the Kemp-signed bill to the Jim Crow Era, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to give a direct answer.
“As you know, I have to be careful. I cannot get into politics from here,” Jean-Pierre said in her response, “The president has been very clear that based on the ‘Big Lie’ there have been a host of anti-voter policies forced on states that challenge America’s fundamental right to vote, the access to voting. So this is against our most basic values, including respect for the law and the constitution.”
"Was President Biden wrong with his assessment of Georgia's voting law or does he stand by that 'Jim Crow' comparison?"
Karine Jean-Pierre: "I won't comment specifically." pic.twitter.com/BmFVmGUxx8
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 25, 2022
It appears that this fear-mongering over voter suppression did not come true given that over 2.5 million Georgians have either voted early or by mail, beating out previous records for the general election.
Jean-Pierre argued that record turnout does not mean voter suppression is not an issue.
“Speaking generally of course, but more broadly, high turnout and voter suppression can take place at the same time,” she said. “One doesn’t have to happen on its own. They can be happening at the same time, but I will leave it there without being able to really dig into the politics of this.”
Current polls on the Georgia Senate runoff seem to indicate that the race is an almost complete tossup.
