The future of US president-elect Joe Biden's agenda hinges on two Senate run-off races in Georgia whose outcome might not be known for days after polls close on Tuesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Public opinion polls show Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have about the same level of support as Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
Slow counting of Georgia's mail ballots in November's presidential election kept the world in the dark about who won the state until three days after polls closed. Biden ended up winning by less than 12000 votes out of about 5 million cast.
A similar delay could unfold after Tuesday's contests if the races are really close, says Walter Jones, a spokesman for the office of Georgia's top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
"We may be looking at several days," Jones said on Monday, adding that the delay would mostly come from mail ballots returned on election day.
Officials can't start counting ballots until 7 pm on Tuesday, though they have started processing them, such as checking that voter signatures on mail ballots match those on record.
Nearly a million mail-in ballots have been processed through Sunday, data shows.
These ballots, as well as more than 2 million cast in person at early voting centres, will likely be counted quickly on election night.
But for the mail votes that arrive on election day, officials will still need to open envelopes, check signatures and load the ballots in counting machines.
They will also need to process hundreds of thousands of votes expected to be cast in person that day.
In November, mail ballots heavily favoured Biden in Georgia and other swing states, while President Donald Trump led in votes cast in person.
If more Democrats again vote by mail this time, initial results could similarly show Republicans in a lead that gives way.
The slow counting of mail ballots was a key reason why Trump took an early lead on November 3, only to trail Biden in the days that followed.
In the end, about a quarter of Georgia's ballots in November were cast by mail and Biden won about two-thirds. The rest were cast in person, with about 55 per cent going to Trump.
Georgia allows a losing candidate to force a recount if the margin of victory is less than or equal to 0.5 per cent.
A recount must be requested within two days of the results being certified by election officials.
Candidates can also request a recount if they think there has been an error in the tabulation; in that case it's up to the secretary of state to decide whether to conduct one.
Australian Associated Press
