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Live Updates: Warnock projected winner, Ossoff widens lead over Perdue

By WSBTV.com News Staff
By WSBTV.com News Staff

ATLANTA — Election Day is finally over-- but one Georgia senate race remains too close to call.

As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, ABC News had projected Raphael Warnock the winner in the race between him and Sen. Kelly Loeffler. The race between Jon Ossoff and David Perdue is separated by just a few thousand votes as key precincts continue to tally votes.

Control of the U.S. Senate when President-elect Joe Biden takes office hinges on the outcome of the Georgia races.

Channel 2 Action News has brought you unprecedented coverage of the race over the last two months, and has reporters fanned our across the state bringing you the latest updates on the election throughout the day and night.

We’ll have LIVE election coverage on Channel 2 Action News This Morning and WSB Now – it’s free on your Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV as well as your WSB-TV News App.

[DOWNLOAD: WSB NOW for LIVE video on your phone or on your smart TV]

LIVE UPDATES:

4:55 a.m.

Jon Ossoff widened his lead over David Perdue as DeKalb County released new numbers Wednesday morning. With 100% of precincts reporting, Ossoff leads Perdue 83.16% to 16.68% in the county. Ossoff gained 3,564 votes with the county’s new update.

As of 4:55 a.m., Ossoff leads Perdue by just over 16,000 votes.

4:50 a.m.

AJC Editor Kevin Riley released a photo of today’s front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as Georgians make history by electing the state’s first Black senator. He is one of only 11 men and women to be elected to the Senate, including former President Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

4 a.m.

As of 4 a.m., thousands of absentee ballots remain to be counted, according to the AJC’s Greg Bluestein. Many of those are from Democratic strongholds in metro Atlanta.

2:21 a.m.

The Perdue campaign just released a statement:

“As we’ve said repeatedly over the last several weeks and as recently as this evening, this is an exceptionally close election that will require time and transparency to be certain the results are fair and accurate and the voices of Georgians are heard. We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted. We believe in the end, Senator Perdue will be victorious.”

2 a.m.

ABC News projects Raphael Warnock wins one of two Senate seats in Georgia.

1:30 a.m.

The Ossoff campaign just released this statement:

“When all the votes are counted we fully expect that Jon Ossoff will have won this election to represent Georgia in the United States Senate. The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon’s performance has been dominant. We look forward to seeing the process through in the coming hours and moving ahead so Jon can start fighting for all Georgians in the U.S. Senate.”

12:42 p.m.

In a late-night speech, Raphael Warnock essentially declares victory in race against Sen. Kelly Loeffler

12:24 a.m.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler addresses the crowd at GOP campaign headquarters saying there is still a path to victory.

12:11 a.m.

Elections officials with Fulton County say worker picking up ballot boxes have been harassed.

11:24 p.m.

The latest elections numbers show there could be a split in which side wins in these races.

10:28 p.m.

The largest portion of uncounted votes is from DeKalb County, a heavily Democratic stronghold.

9:44 p.m.

The Secretary of State’s Office said official across the state have counted about 3 million votes so far.

8:57 p.m.

According to Fulton County, there will be a total of about 450,000 votes in the county, compared to the 528,000 in November. 71,000 voted today. There were 272,000 early voters. The rest are absentee.

8:20 p.m.

Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron says poll works have received threats and his office has received bomb threats.

8:10 p.m.

All polls are now closed in Georgia.

7:21 p.m.

The first poll results have started coming from across the state.

7 p.m.

Poll have closed in most counties across the state. A few stayed open a few extra minutes because of problems earlier in the day. In Chatham County, voting at the Old Courthouse on Bull Street was extended to 7:33 p.m. and the Beach High location was extended to 7:35 p.m. due to technical difficulties.

6:46 p.m.

Fulton County’s election director said about 70,000 people voted cross the county today.

6:32 p.m.

Gabriel Sterling with the Secretary of State’s Office says the biggest issue they’ve had to deal with today is baseless rumors.

“The biggest thing is we have to deal with is rumors,” Sterling said. “Everybody’s kind of on edge for some of these things. But in general, it’s been steady as she goes.”

6:19 p.m.

Secretary of State’s Office says there have been a handful of counties that have been granted extensions over issues at the polls today.

5:09 p.m.:

Our reporters are following the election night parties from all of the candidates.

4:55 p.m.:

Channel 2′s Justin Gray learned that only 3 ballot scanners statewide have had a reported problem.

4:52 p.m.:

Channel 2′s Dave Huddleston is inside the Republicans’ watch party. Their message is “hold the line.”

4:14 p.m.:

Channel 2′s Justin Gray learned more about the “minor” voting issue in Columbia County near Augusta - the court has ordered two precincts to open a few minutes later.

3:55 p.m.:

Gabriel Sterling with the Secretary of State’s Office said there are more than 300,000 absentee ballots outstanding.

3:44 p.m.:

Cobb County is reporting no major voting issues as of 3:30 p.m.

A judge has ordered the Powder Springs 1A precinct to remain open until 7:10 p.m. tonight because this precinct did not start voting until about 7:10 a.m. There was an issue getting the machines up and running on time. This precinct is at the George E. Ford Center, 4181 Atlanta Street in Powder Springs.

3:40 p.m.:

Gabriel Sterling with the Secretary of State’s Office held a news conference about how the election is going so far, and he says it’s been mostly smooth. He said that 4 of the 27,000 touchscreens in the state were replaced.

3:15 p.m.:

Channel 2′s Nicole Carr is at a warehouse in northwest Atlanta where some ballots will be counted tonight. She says the security has been increased.

3:01 p.m.:

Channel 2′s Tony Thomas in Gwinnett County reports “slow and steady” turnout at one Lawrenceville polling location, with more than 300 people voting.

2:08 p.m.:

Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Nicole Carr is at the warehouse where ballots will be finalized.

1:52 p.m.:

President Donald Trump is tweeting about supposed voting issues in Columbia County. The Secretary of State’s office says those issues were resolved hours ago and the public was informed in real time.

12:27 p.m.:

Channel 2′s Mike Petchenik reports no line at the Wolf Creek Library in South Fulton.

12:15 p.m.:

Channel 2′s Justin Gray met with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger this afternoon and there was a steady line of voters.

12:07 p.m.:

Gabriel Sterling with the Secretary of State’s Office reports an average of 1 minute wait times across Georgia.

11:50 a.m.:

Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach reports low turnout at St. Philip AME Church in DeKalb County. He said it may be due to the high early voting or absentee.

“It’s less people now then was the first time. It was packed the first time here,” said voter Derrick Evans.

10:55 a.m.:

Senator Kelly Loeffler held an impromptu event in Sandy Springs this morning.

9:44 a.m.:

Channel 2′s Linda Stouffer gave out information about how to check your absentee ballot.

8:35 a.m.:

Gabriel Sterling with the Secretary of State’s Office reports a programming error for some scanners and pollworker cards in Columbia County. But he said that voting is continuing on backup emergency ballots.

7:20 a.m.

A Channel 2 Action News producer reported that an issue with the poll pads at the Alpharetta Recreation Center caused a line to form. But the issue has been fixed and the line is now moving.

7 a.m.:

Polls have opened across the state of Georgia. A record 3 million people have already voted.

6:03 a.m.:

Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach is inside one polling location in DeKalb County where election workers are beginning to turn on their voting machines.

5:35 a.m.:

Channel 2′s Kristen Holloway said she seen some election workers begin to arrive at the Gwinnett County election headquarters ahead of the 7 a.m. opening.

5:05 a.m.:

Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach in DeKalb County said he spoke with county election officials and they said after six elections this cycle, they are prepared for this Senate runoff. In-person voting today could rival, or even top, what we saw in November’s general election, according to officials.

GEORGIA VOTER GUIDE:

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