Key county in swing state of Georgia counting ballots ahead of Election Day

Lawrenceville, Georgia — 

One of the astir ethnically divers counties successful the Southeastern United States volition beryllium among those issuing aboriginal voting results Tuesday night, a uncover that could bespeak which of the statesmanlike candidates is successful the pb successful the important number of 538 electoral votes.

The victor indispensable person astatine slightest 270 of those electoral votes, and Georgia, seen arsenic 1 of the 7 states wherever the result is uncertain, has 16 of those precious votes. Only Pennsylvania has much — 19 — among the battleground states. North Carolina besides has 16.

The different chaotic cards are Arizona (11), Michigan (15), Nevada (6) and Wisconsin (10).

It is imaginable for the declared victor successful the electoral number to suffer the nationalist fashionable ballot total. That past happened successful 2016, erstwhile Republican Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes but mislaid the fashionable ballot to Democrat Hillary Clinton by astir 2%.

It could beryllium days earlier the United States knows who its adjacent president volition be, but astatine the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections office successful the plaything authorities of Georgia, workers are already scanning respective 100 1000 ballots submitted successful beforehand by mail-in and aboriginal voters. The tabulations of those ballots volition beryllium released the infinitesimal the polls adjacent astatine 7 p.m. connected Tuesday.

Up to 70% of the ballot full from those already-processed ballots volition beryllium known wrong that archetypal hour, said Zach Manifold, the county's elections supervisor.

"And then, benignant of a agelong nighttime begins," Manifold told VOA connected Monday. "Our archetypal precinct usually arrives possibly astir 8:30, conscionable depending connected however overmuch enactment determination is astatine 7 o'clock. But 8:30 is the archetypal precinct. We person 156 precincts that each person to travel back. I don't cognize why, but it ever seems similar that past 1 comes successful sometime betwixt 11:30 and midnight.

"After you get past midnight, you'll astir apt person conscionable astir each the precincts successful and person a beauteous bully consciousness for the last — astatine slightest the unofficial results — for Gwinnett," Manifold said.

To show transparency, the media, which is expected to see dozens of TV quality crews and different journalists from astir the world, volition beryllium allowed successful the ample country wherever the ballots are opened. The reporters volition beryllium kept down a cordon but not prevented from observing the full process. Activities successful the tabulation room, successful different portion of the aforesaid building, volition beryllium livestreamed online.

Gwinnett County, with a colonisation of astir 1 million, is the second-largest region successful Georgia. It is singular for its exceptional diversity, with nary azygous taste radical making up much than astir one-third of its residents. In 2023, non-Hispanic whites made up astir one-third of the country's population, arsenic did African Americans, according to census data.

"We person a precise ample Hispanic population, Asian population, Black population," said Manifold. "It is simply a precise overmuch a substance of what is America. And, so, I deliberation a batch of the crushed that radical are wanting to spot what Gwinnett's similar [on predetermination night] is, I think, Gwinnett is simply a batch similar modern America."

Democrat Joe Biden's beardown borderline successful this suburban region 4 years agone helped him narrowly triumph Georgia and frankincense the presidency, unseating Trump.

Gwinnett County voted Republican each twelvemonth betwixt 1980 and 2012, but successful enactment with a inclination of suburban governmental realignment, went narrowly for Democrat Hillary Clinton successful 2016. Trump, a governmental novice that year, won Georgia wide successful 2016, which was cardinal to his unexpected statesmanlike victory.

Regardless of the result this week, Manifold knows helium volition beryllium drinking a batch of java from Tuesday greeting to enactment alert.

"It's astir a 24-hour time a batch of the clip successful these statesmanlike elections," helium said. "I'll commencement astatine our warehouse astatine 4 a.m., and we'll spot what clip we get retired of present astatine the main office."