Georgia holds highly anticipated vote

Polling places across Georgia saw virtually no lines as voters showed up to participate in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate runoff election, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said. Democrats must take both seats from incumbent GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to win control of the Senate with Vice President–elect Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.

When will we know who won? Early on Wednesday, Atlanta minister Raphael Warnock defeated Loeffler to become the first Black senator in Georgia's history. It still remains too early to call the second race. The polls closed at 7 p.m., and more than 3 million Georgians voted before Tuesday, either by mail or at early voting places in December. In November’s presidential election, the state tallied nearly 5 million ballots.

Dig deeper: Read Jamie Dean’s report on finding safe harbor in political turbulence.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its original posting.