Long lines and malfunctions plague Georgia primary

Some voters waited up to five hours to vote in Georgia’s primary election on Tuesday. One of the first in-person elections since the coronavirus pandemic took hold encountered technical troubles. All the voting machines in one of Atlanta’s largest precincts stopped working at least temporarily, according to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, forcing election officials in Fulton County to keep the polls open until 9 p.m. EDT. Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, and West Virginia also held primaries on Tuesday.

What are the most notable results? In Georgia, investigative journalist and media executive Jon Ossoff held a solid lead in a crowded Democratic primary field early on Wednesday morning but has not reached the vote threshold needed to avoid a runoff. The winner will challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue in November. In South Carolina, longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham defeated three opponents in the GOP primary and will fight for a fourth term against former South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, who ran unopposed on Tuesday.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report on foreign attempts to take advantage of U.S. turmoil ahead of the general election in November.

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