Jon Ossoff speaking in Georgia
Jon Ossoff speaking in Georgia

A short time ago, vot­ing in the spe­cial elec­tion to select a suc­ces­sor to depart­ed U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tom Price in Geor­gia’s 6th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict end­ed, and the three coun­ties in the dis­trict began releas­ing ear­ly results.

So far, it’s been extreme­ly close, with Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date Jon Ossoff trad­ing the lead with Repub­li­can can­di­date (and Trump boost­er) Karen Han­del. Ossoff is cling­ing to the nar­row­est of leads at present — he and Han­del each have 50% of the vote. Many more bal­lots remain to be count­ed, but con­sid­er­ing how Repub­li­can this dis­trict is, Ossof­f’s per­for­mance is noth­ing short of remarkable.

(Price won the dis­trict by a twen­ty-three point mar­gin just last year, but there’s a pos­si­bil­i­ty tonight that Repub­li­cans could lose it. That’s a big deal.)

Here’s where we stand as of 5:45 PM Pacific:

GA-06 Spe­cial Elec­tion: 13 of 208 Precincts Report­ing — 6%
NamePar­tyVotesVote %
Ossoff, JonDemo­c­ra­t­ic61,37550%
Han­del, KarenRepub­li­can60,18250%

By 5:10 PM Pacif­ic, Ossoff had tak­en his first lead of the night, with 58,152 votes to Han­del’s 56,619 (51% to 49%). Pri­or to that, as of 4:58 PM Pacif­ic (when only the first drop from Ful­ton Coun­ty had come in), Han­del had been ahead, with 37,140 votes to Ossof­f’s 35,111 (51% to 49%).

It’s a good sign for Ossoff that he has been able to remain just slight­ly ahead of Han­del as the num­bers get updat­ed. We would­n’t be sur­prised to see the lead flip back and forth a few more times before the night is out.

A few polling places in DeKalb Coun­ty have been held open past the dead­line to allow vot­ers to par­tic­i­pate in the elec­tion, accord­ing to Atlanta’s CBS affil­i­ate:

A judge has signed an order approv­ing a peti­tion by the Board of Reg­is­tra­tion and Elec­tions to extend vot­ing hours for 30 min­utes at the polls locat­ed at Holy Cross Catholic Church (3773 Cham­blee Tuck­er Road). Geor­gia Sec­re­tary of State Bri­an Kemp has informed CBS46 that DeKalb has obtained a judi­cial order to extend vot­ing hours until 7:30 p.m., Tues­day evening at Livsey Ele­men­tary and Embry Hills polling loca­tions in Tucker.

The report does­n’t way why vot­ing hours were extended.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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