Jon Ossoff holds strong lead in Georgia Democratic Senate primary

In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Ossoff said that there were still hundreds of thousands of outstanding ballots, calling the state's Election Day an "embarrassment," an "outrage" and an "affront to our constitutional principles."

Ossoff said that while there is "blame to go around" among officials for their "comprehensive failure," he was "particularly disgusted" that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger "refused to take any personal responsibility for a debacle that was clear to anybody watching."

"This state's chief elections officer clearly failed the people of Georgia yesterday in his most sacred and essential duty," Ossoff added.

In a statement Wednesday night, Raffensperger blamed county officials but said he will work with them to ensure they are trained properly.

"As the Secretary of State, I will continue to work with our county elections boards and directors to train them to properly deliver, install and maintain our voting system. It is clear that some counties continue to not perform. It is the responsibility of the counties to properly deliver and install equipment. It is the responsibility of the counties to properly train its poll workers."

Raffensperger also said he's working with the state General Assembly "to help give the State greater authority to directly intervene and require management changes as well as call for the counties themselves to pay for the remedial action." He add that his office's "law enforcement officers will undertake a complete and thorough investigation into what happened in Fulton County, including not just what happened yesterday but also any improperly handled absentee ballot applications."

State officials launched investigations into a new system that cost over $100 million before the polls even closed on Tuesday, unsettled by reports of hours-long lines and machines that were misused, missing or malfunctioning. County and state officials blamed each other for the debacle.

As of Wednesday evening, Ossoff is ahead with 50.5% of the vote, which continues to trickle in while counting in Georgia continues. That would be enough to avoid a runoff race in August if the lead holds once all the votes are counted. His two closest challengers are Teresa Tomlinson, the former Columbus mayor, and Sarah Riggs Amico, the 2018 nominee for lieutenant governor and executive chair of a trucking company. The winner will ultimately face Republican Sen. David Perdue in November.

Tomlinson claimed on Wednesday that Ossoff had not received a majority of votes and the election would turn to a run-off between her and him.

"Voters in Georgia know we need a strong candidate to take on David Perdue and even though Jon is universally known, a majority of voters have rejected him again," said Tomlinson in a statement. "Now that it is a two-person race, we are looking forward to voters learning more about my record as a successful two-term Mayor and Public Safety Director who has won elections and governed and governed well."

Amico responded that "claiming victory" now offends those who have yet to cast their ballot or struggled to do so.

"Any candidate claiming victory based on partial results is dishonoring the voices of hundreds of thousands of voters who, in good faith, turned in absentee ballots or stood in long lines late into the night in the pouring rain to make their voices heard," Amico said in a statement. "Dismissing or ignoring valid ballots from these voters is an audacious affront to the entire voting rights movement and takes a page straight from the voter suppression playbook championed by Republicans like (Governor) Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger."

Georgia has not elected a Democratic senator in 20 years. But Democrats are hopeful that they will now elect two in 2020, spurred by the growth of the Atlanta suburbs and voter expansion efforts led by former state House minority leader and 2018 gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams. Polls show that President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, are neck and neck in the state.

Perdue has acknowledged that the Peach State is in play and has tied himself closely to Trump in his first term as senator, touting the federal government's response to the economic and health care crises.

Ossoff, the CEO of a documentary production company, lost his first campaign in 2017, which was the most expensive House race in history. But he has again raised by far the most money among the Democratic candidates and boasts the high-profile endorsement of Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the civil rights icon. In the primary, Ossoff emphasized his more progressive positions on criminal justice while attacking Perdue for trading stocks during the pandemic. Perdue has responded by pointing out that his advisers made the transactions and that they will no longer trade in individual companies.

The primary election raised fears of what's to come in November. While typically fewer than 40,000 people vote by absentee ballot in Georgia, over 810,000 people in the state voted by mail before Election Day due to Raffensperger's efforts to expand voting during the coronavirus pandemic. Yet many more struggled to vote absentee.

Raffensperger said on Tuesday that the situation in Fulton and DeKalb counties, which encompass Atlanta and some of its suburbs, was "unacceptable" and opened an investigation. He said there would "obviously" be a "learning curve" with the new system but that other counties "were significantly better prepared to respond so that voters had every opportunity to vote."

Michael Thurmond, the CEO of DeKalb county, shot back that Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, should launch a probe into what happened, saying it was Raffensperger's "responsibility to train, prepare, and equip election staff throughout the state to ensure fair and equal access to the ballot box."

Voting rights activists lambasted the state's efforts to fulfill its citizens' right to vote. "The Georgia elections held today were a massive failure," said Andrea Young, the executive director of the state ACLU.

Lauren Groh-Wargo, the CEO of Fair Fight Action, criticized Raffensperger for the long lines, tweeting that the "malfunctioning machines," "inadequate resources and training for election officials, provisional ballot issues, inadequate back up paper ballots & more" were "predictable" and "preventable."

Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the Georgia Secretary of State's office, said on Tuesday that while equipment was delivered late and to the wrong locations, the equipment itself functioned well.

"We have reports of poll workers not understanding setup or how to operate voting equipment," he said. "While these are unfortunate, they are not issues of the equipment but a function of counties engaging in poor planning, limited training, and failures of leadership. Well over 2,000 precincts are functioning normally throughout the state of Georgia."

His tone sharpened after Thurmond's statement attacking the Secretary of State. Sterling responded that the county CEO "doesn't seem to know that training poll workers and equipping polling places is a responsibility that Georgia law places squarely on the county."

This fall, Democrats will also try to defeat Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed late last year after Sen. Johnny Isakson announced his resignation. That election will be decided by an unusual format, in which all of the candidates will be on the same ballot in November. If no candidate receives a majority, the top two finishers will advance to a January runoff.

Loeffler's stock transactions during the coronavirus pandemic have been heavily scrutinized but the Department of Justice closed its investigation and she has claimed exoneration.

Still, she faces a strong challenge from Republican Rep. Doug Collins, who helped lead the defense of Trump during his impeachment in the House, and Democrats, including Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Matt Lieberman, a businessman and son of former Sen. Joe Lieberman.

The Election Day mess on Tuesday raised concerns of what's to come this fall, when turnout is expected to be even higher. "Let's all work, hope and pray that this not be a preview of November," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tweeted.