First votes reported, Nov. 3, 2020: 7:20 p.m. ET.
By midnight ET: about 77 percent of total votes cast were reported
16 awarded to statewide winner.
Georgia state law allows county elections officials to begin tabulating mail ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day.
As a result, the first votes reported on election night will include much of these mail ballots as well as early in-person votes.
Overall, these ballots have tended to favor Democrats, ever since the issue of early and mail voting became highly politicized during the 2020 election.
This suggests that the Democratic candidate in a competitive contest could take an early lead in the vote count in the initial vote reports after polls close, even though the race may tighten considerably as more votes are tabulated.
In the 2022 U.S. Senate race, for example, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock took a lead of about 40 percentage points over Republican Herschel Walker after the first batches of votes were released after polls closed, but the vote margin dipped to below 1 percentage point after about two hours and remained there for the rest of the count and through certification. Mail and early in-person votes accounted for about 64 percent of all ballots in that election.
In September, Georgia´s State Election Board adopted a new rule requiring poll workers to hand count the number of paper ballots cast at their polling site.
Critics worried the last-minute rule change could create chaos in local elections offices and significantly delay the vote-counting process. A Fulton County Superior Court judge blocked the rule in October.
In statewide elections, Republicans tend to perform best in the smaller, more rural counties in the northern, central and southeastern regions of the state, while Democrats post their best numbers in the population centers of Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah and Athens.
In particular, the counties in the Atlanta area typically are vital to a statewide victory but for different reasons. Fulton and DeKalb are overwhelmingly Democratic, giving Biden 73 percent and 83 pervcent of the vote in 2020. Hillary Clinton also carried both counties overwhelmingly in 2016 but with 69 percent and 81 peecent of the vote, respectively. She lost Georgia to Trump.
Cobb and Gwinnett counties are more competitive but have both swung Democratic in recent elections.
Barack Obama lost both counties in both of his campaigns, while Clinton narrowly carried the two with 49 percent and 51 perecent of the vote, respectively.
Biden did considerably better in 2020, winning 56 percent and 59 percent of the vote in the two counties.
Trump doesn´t need to win the counties to win the state, as long as he can hold Harris to Clinton 2016 levels rather than to Biden 2020 levels.
The Associated Press doesn´t make projections and will declare a winner only when it has determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap.
If a race hasn´t been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, like candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear it hasn´t declared a winner and explain why.
There is no automatic recount provision in Georgia, but a losing candidate may request a recount if the margin is less than or equal to 0.5 percent of the total vote.
The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
(with Associated Press reporting)
