Black Early Vote Down in Georgia

December 02, 2008 12:58 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: The African-American share of the early vote in Georgia is down significantly from Nov. 4 when Barack Obama's name was on the ballot, dimming former state Rep. Jim Martin's (D) hopes of knocking off Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. 

Thirty-five percent of the general election early voters in Georgia were African-American. By contrast, only 22 percent of the run-off election early voters in Georgia are African-American, according to statistics compiled by the Georgia Secretary of State. Early voters refers to both in-person plus mail-in ballots.

Read the Nov. 4 early vote stats here: http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/2008_1104/Earlyvotingstats08.htm

Read the Dec. 2 run-off election early vote stats here (these numbers are still changing as mail-in ballots continue to be received and processed): http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/earlyvotingstats08_runoff.htm

While the Georgia run-off campaign has featured high-profile Republican and Democratic surrogates, President-elect Obama has limited his involvement to cutting a radio ad and recording a robo call message. He has refrained from appearing in television ads or personally campaigning in the state.

The Georgia Secretary of State's office told ABC News on Tuesday morning that Dec. 2 voting in the Peach State is "light but steady" with no problems reported thus far from any of the state's 159 counties.

The Georgia Secretary of State says that this morning's anecdotally "light" turnout might be due, in part, to the fact that this is the first year in which Georgians have been allowed to vote early (in-person and by mail) without an excuse.

At least 8.5 percent of Georgia's registered voters have taken advantage of early voting for the run-off election.

Georgia law requires a run-off in statewide races whenever no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote.

On Nov. 4, Chambliss finished ahead of Martin but failed to get over 50 percent of the vote: 49.8 percent of the vote went to Chambliss compared to 46.8 percent for Martin and 3.4 percent for Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley.

The Georgia run-off election will help determine the scope of the Democratic Party's majority in the United States Senate. So far this year, Democrats have picked up seven Senate seats with Democratic pick-up opportunities in Georgia and Minnesota still undecided.

If Democrats were to win both the Georgia and Minnesota races, the party would have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate.

Even if the Democrats lose both races, the Democratic Party's 58-seat majority is the largest controlled by any party in the Senate since Democrats controlled that many seats during the final two years of Jimmy Carter's presidency.