WASHINGTON (AP) — While many are focused on rebuilding and recovering from the devastating effects of the crisis, Georgia voters are once again expected to play a key role in the Nov. 5 presidential election. Hurricane Helene.

Both Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump visited Georgia in recent weeks to survey the damage and meet with affected residents and local officials. The exact extent of Helene’s impact on the election, including the state’s voting infrastructure, is difficult to assess and likely won’t be fully understood until after Election Day.

WRISTWATCH: Harris said Trump’s efforts to sow division and fear “are not who we are”

Georgia nevertheless remains one of the biggest prizes in presidential elections. The state played a key role in 2020, when Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by less than a quarter of a percent, or 11,779 votes.

Trump’s efforts to overturn those results are at the center of an ongoing criminal case in Fulton County; however, the case is currently on hold while the former president’s legal team files a pretrial appeal to have District Attorney Fani Willis removed from the case and the indictment dismissed. . The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear those arguments after the election. Willis is seeking another term as Fulton County’s top prosecutor and will face Republican attorney Courtney Kramer on the November ballot.

While Georgia’s governor and U.S. senators are not up for election this year, all 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are not considered competitive. In the state legislature, where Republicans control both chambers, all 56 state Senate and 180 State House seats are up for election. Democrats hope to whittle down the Republican majority but have not listed the Georgia Legislature as a primary target in November, as they have in several other states.

Let’s take a look at what to expect in the 2024 elections in Georgia:

Election Day

5 November.

Survey closing time

19:00 ET.

Presidential electoral votes

16 awards were given to winners across the state.

Notable races and candidates

President: Harris (D) vs. Trump(R) vs. Chase Oliver (Libertarian) vs. Jill Stein (Green).

Other interesting breeds

U.S. House, Atlanta Judicial Circuit District Attorney, State Senate, State Assembly, and ballot measures.

Decision Notes

Georgia state law allows county election officials to begin tabulating mail ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day. As a result, the first votes reported on election night will include many of these mail-in votes and early in-person votes. In general, since the issue of early and mail voting became highly politicized during the 2020 election, those votes tended to favor Democrats. This suggests that in a competitive contest, the Democratic candidate could take an early lead in vote counting in the first vote reports after polls close, even if the race tightens significantly as more votes are tabulated.

In the 2022 U.S. Senate race, for example, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock was ahead of Republican Herschel Walker by nearly 40 percentage points after the first voting batches were announced after polls closed, but his vote margin fell to less than about 1 point. It remained there for two hours and the rest of the count and through certification. Mail and early in-person voting accounted for nearly 64% of all votes in this election.

In September, the Georgia State Board of Elections adopted a new rule requiring poll workers to hand count the number of paper ballots cast at polling places. Critics worried that the last-minute rule change could create chaos at local election offices and significantly delay the vote counting process. A Fulton County Superior Court judge blocked the rule in October.

In statewide elections, Republicans do best in smaller, more rural counties in the northern, central and southeastern parts of the state, while Democrats put up their best numbers in the population centers of Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah and Athens. .

Counties in the Atlanta area, in particular, are often crucial to a statewide victory, but for different reasons. Fulton and DeKalb are overwhelmingly Democratic, giving Biden 73% and 83% of the vote in 2020. Hillary Clinton also won overwhelmingly in both counties in 2016, with 69% and 81% of the vote, respectively. He lost Georgia to Trump.

Cobb and Gwinnett counties are more competitive, but both tilted toward Democrats in recent elections. Barack Obama lost both counties in both of his campaigns, while Clinton narrowly won the two counties with 49% and 51% of the votes, respectively. Biden fared significantly better in 2020, winning 56% and 59% of the vote in the two counties. Trump doesn’t need to win districts to win the state, as long as he can keep Harris at Clinton 2016 levels instead of Biden 2020 levels.

The Associated Press does not make predictions and will only declare a winner when it determines that there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. Unless a race is called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or victory declarations. In doing so, the AP will make it clear that it is not declaring a winner and explain why.

While Georgia does not have an automatic recount provision, the losing candidate can request a recount if the margin is less than or equal to 0.5% of the total votes. The AP can declare the winner in a race eligible for a recount if it determines that the margin is too large for a recount or that there is a legal challenge to change the outcome.

Past presidential results

2020: Biden (D) 49.5%, Trump (R) 49.3%, AP race call: Thursday, November 19, 2020, 7:58 PM ET.

Voter registration and participation

Number of registered voters: 8,243,104 (as of October 17, 2024).

Voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election: 65% of registered voters.

Voting before Election Day

Votes cast before Election Day 2020: approximately 80% of total votes.
Votes cast before Election Day 2022: approximately 64% of total votes.
Votes cast before Election Day 2024: See the AP Primary Voting tracker.

How long does vote counting take?

First votes reported, November 3, 2020: 7:20 PM ET.
By midnight ET: About 77% of the total votes cast have been reported.

Associated Press writers Rebecca Reynolds, Adam Yeomans and Maya Sweedler contributed to this report.