ATLANTA — According to a new poll, Georgia’s governor’s race is virtually tied.
According to InsiderAdvantage’s final Georgia governor’s survey, Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms is only .03% ahead of Republican Rick Jackson, with Bottoms with 49.03% and Jackson with 49%. Two percent are undecided.
Channel 2’s Richard Elliot went through data from the last several decades of gubernatorial races and found that this is the closest race since 1966.
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In 1966, Republican Bo Callaway won the popular vote by 0.3% over Democrat Lester Maddox, but did not reach the required 50% and one vote threshold. There were no runoffs then and Callaway lost the election in the Georgia General Assembly, making Maddox Georgia’s 75th governor.
Both Jackson and Bottoms were out on Election Day making a final push to get people to the polls.
Jackson and his wife Melody were in Forsyth County on Tuesday morning and cast their ballots. They usually vote absentee, but said they wanted to vote in-person on Election Day this year.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve gone in person...but it was obviously important to me today,” he said.
Bottoms took part in Early Voting, but visited a campaign field office in Smyrna with Senator Raphael Warnock.
“Somebody else said, ‘We are fired up and ready to vote, or fed up and ready to go,’ so we are fed up and ready to vote. Let’s go get them, y’all,” she said.
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Elliot spoke with longtime University of Georgia Political Science Professor Dr. Charles Bullock about where to look to see how the evening might go in the gubernatorial race.
“For Democrats to win in Georgia, they have to run up their vote totals in five big urban counties, and that’s Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb and Gwinnett. Half of all votes that Democrats get in Georgia come from those five counties,” Bullock said.
Both camps will be watching as results come in likely late into the night.
Get live election results here.
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