Democrat Stacey Abrams Calls for Runoff Election in Super-Close Georgia Governor Race

Any potential runoff would be held on Dec. 4

| November 7, 2018 @ 10:00 AM

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Stacey Abrams is not giving up without a fight in her bid to become the first African-American Woman to become elected a state’s governor.

Abrams has yet to concede to her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, hoping the too-close-to-call race will trigger a runoff election in December.

The race between Abrams, the Democratic candidate who has received the backing of major Hollywood players including Oprah Winfrey, and Republican candidate Kemp, is still too close to call. Kemp is currently ahead of Abrams by nearly 68,000 votes with 99 percent of precincts reporting, according to CNN election results.

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But since Kemp only has 50.4 percent of the vote, a runoff election is still possible. Per Georgia law, if neither candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, that will trigger a runoff on Dec. 4 between the top two vote-getters (Abrams has just under 49 percent of the vote).

If that happens, it would be the first general election runoff in Georgia history.

According to CNN, the Abrams campaign argued there were “several” places in the state that could end up forcing a runoff, including three of Georgia’s largest counties, which that “have reported only a portion of the votes that were submitted by early mail” and four other large counties that “have reported exactly 0 votes by mail.”

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The campaign is arguing that those seven counties comprise at last 77,000 ballots. “These counties also represent heavily-Democratic leaning constituencies, and the majority of those votes are anticipated to be for Stacey Abrams,” according to a statement from the campaign, per CNN.

“Georgia still has a decision to make,” Abrams said, per NBC News. “If I wasn’t your first choice, or if you didn’t vote, you’re going to have a chance to do a do-over.”

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