Dem
50
Ties
1
GOP
49
This is kind of an interesting issue. In the Georgia runoff, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) would like there to be as many days of early voting as is possible. He knows which party's members are more likely to take advantage of that opportunity. In particular, he would like early voting to be available on Nov. 26, as Saturdays are the days that many of his voters are off work but also don't have church responsibilities.
There is a wonky law in Georgia, however, that has left Nov. 26 in murky territory. That law says that early voting cannot be held the day after a holiday. So what is the holiday here? Well, Thanksgiving is Nov. 24, but that's two days earlier, not the day before. And Nov. 25 used to be Robert E. Lee Day. But, as it turns out, Lee was a racist slaveowner who committed treason against the United States. Who knew? Anyhow, it's now a paid state holiday that has no name.
The upshot is that Friday the 25th is a paid day off for a lot of people in Georgia, which makes it kind of a holiday. But it's not a named holiday, which means it's not any different from Dec. 26 or Dec. 31. So, Warnock's campaign has sued, asking a judge to declare Nov. 25 to be "not really a holiday" and thus Nov. 26 to be fair game for early voting. Who knows what the judge will decide, but it's worth noting that it's complicated enough that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger issued a memo declaring that Nov. 25 was not a holiday and then changed his mind and issued a second memo declaring that it is a holiday, after all. Georgia law also says that early voting has to be announced at least a week in advance, so this will need to be decided by Nov. 19. (Z)