Democrats Eye Voting Rights After Georgia Win: Election Update

Election officials assist voters at a polling location during the Senate runoff elections in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. Georgia voters are turning out in record numbers to cast ballots in two runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate for the next two years.

(Bloomberg) -- Democrats are eyeing a voting-rights bill as it looks possible that they will win control of the Senate. Ballot counting continued Wednesday in the two Georgia Senate races.

Other developments:

Democrats Close to Senate Control Fueled by Black Voter Turnout
Trump Rages Against Georgia Vote While Nodding to GOP’s Defeats
Final Act in Trump’s Defeat Pits Republicans Against Republicans
Turnout Hits Historic Highs in Contentious Georgia Senate Races

Democrats Eye Voting-Rights Reform After Georgia Win

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants celebrated the Georgia results in a morning call on Wednesday, and discussed proceeding with legislation to establish federal codes for voting.

Pelosi told the group of Democratic lawmakers that a voting-rights and election-reform bill will now get a Senate vote, according to a lawmaker on the call. The bill would create automatic voter registration, bar voter purges and simplify vote-by-mail processes, among other elements.

The bill, which also places new limits on campaign contributions, passed the House two years ago but was ignored by the GOP-run Senate. It was reintroduced in the House this month.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also celebrated the Georgia victory by playing Ray Charles’s version of “Georgia On My Mind,” the official state song, on the conference call. -- Erik Wasson

Outstanding Ballots Still Being Counting in Georgia (4 a.m.)

Some Georgia counties planned to resume counting outstanding ballots in the U.S. Senate runoff elections on Wednesday morning, after Democrats won one race and the other remained very close.

Democrat Raphael Warnock won his contest against Kelly Loeffler, the Republican incumbent, though Loeffler said she isn’t conceding. David Perdue, the other Republican candidate in the runoff, was narrowly trailing Democrat Jon Ossoff.

There were still absentee ballots to be counted in some counties, and as many as 17,000 military and overseas ballots can be counted if they are postmarked by Tuesday and received by 5 p.m. Friday.

Votes still to be counted were “scattered” throughout the state, with outstanding ballots in some counties that will help Democrats and others that will boost Republicans, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said late Tuesday night on CNN.

“I know one thing, there will be a lot of people looking for that mail coming in on Friday,” Raffensperger said.