Georgia Secretary of State calls on General Assembly to end Runoff elections

THOMAS COUNTY, Ga. (WCTV) - Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called on the General Assembly Wednesday to put an end to the process of election runoffs in the state of Georgia.

Raffensberger says the runoffs need to go because of the strain they put on election offices across the state, with the most recent Senate runoff election between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker leaving many counties with just days to prepare.

In a press release, Raffensberger points out that Georgia is one of the only states to hold a general election runoff, and that it’s common for the state to always have one. He shared that come January he’s hoping lawmakers will consider the process as a topic of interest and eliminate it altogether.

While his initial request is to eliminate the runoffs, Raffensperger mentions any kind of reform would be beneficial, and local elections officials agree.

In Thomas County, Elections Supervisor Frank Scoggins says reform to Georgia runoffs would be a great step forward. He says the county had just 20 days including weekends and the Thanksgiving holiday to meet deadlines and complete audits in time for a week of early voting for the Senate runoff. Scoggins added that while the elections office was able to pull it off, the timeframe to prepare for runoff elections is difficult on the workers and something should be done about it.

WCTV reached out to the Secretary of State’s office to get clarity on what “changes” would look like if the runoffs are not completely eliminated, but we did not hear back.

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