What needs to happen for Stacey Abrams to get a Run-off against Brian Kemp in Georgia

By Kia Morgan-Smith

·November 7, 2018

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Some say, voter suppression was on full display in Georgia as constituents stood in line for hours in many African American metro Atlanta communities, where people had trouble casting votes because machines didn’t have power cords and shut down. It left hundreds of voters waiting in line for hours to cast ballots in the hotly contest gubernatorial race against Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp.

—Stacey Abrams refuses to concede hotly contested Georgia governor race: “Votes remain to be counted”—

But it ain’t over. Abrams vowed to keep the fight going until every vote is counted, which means that constituents may get another chance to cast their ballots on Dec. 4 in a runoff, the Huffington Post reports.

“There are tens of thousands of absentee ballots around the state, many of them we believe are Abrams voters,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ campaign manager.

The race is neck-in-neck, and the winner has to secure at least 50 percent of the vote, but there are absentee ballots that still hang in the balance and could make all the difference for Abrams.

Kemp, on the other hand, who is the Secretary of State in charge of overseeing elections, believes his win is on the way.

“There are votes left to count, but we have a very strong lead,” he said. “Folks, make no mistake, the math is on our side to win this election.”

Kemp is currently ahead of Abrams by nearly 68,000 votes with 99% of precincts reporting, according to CNN election results. But he only has 50.4% of the vote. If neither candidate receives 50%, there will be a runoff in early December.

According to a statement provided to CNN by her campaign, Abrams is holding off on conceding to see if a runoff is possible.

The campaign cited several specific places in the state that could play a role in a scenario to force the runoff, including three of the state’s largest counties 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,” according to the campaign. Together, it said, the seven counties “are expected to return a minimum of 77,000 ballots.”

“These counties also represent heavily-Democratic leaning constituencies, and the majority of those votes are anticipated to be for Stacey Abrams,” the statement read. The campaign also said absentee ballots could make a difference.

“Across our state, folks are opening up the dreams of voters in absentee ballots, and we believe our chance for a stronger Georgia is just within reach,” Abrams said Wednesday morning.

Stacey Abrams delivered a powerful speech last night to supporters that proved she hasn’t counted herself out of the hotly contested race.

—Dozens kidnapped from Cameroon school amid secessionist conflict—

“I want to say this: if I wasn’t your first choice or if you made no choice at all, you’re gonna have a chance to do a do-over,” she said. “Votes remain to be counted, there are voices that remain to be heard…We believe our chance for a stronger Georgia is within reach.”

The speech came shortly after Abrams’ campaign manager told the crowd at their watch party, “More than 3.7 million Georgians have cast a ballot which is 1.2 million more than 2014. The returns are coming in slowly. Nearly all of the outstanding votes that remain to be counted are from Democratic strongholds. We also know that there are tens of thousands of absentee ballots around the state, many of them we believe are Abrams voters and they have yet to be counted as well.”