ATLANTA — Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called on the Georgia General Assembly Wednesday to eliminate general election runoffs in the state.

In primary elections — when a party candidate is chosen — and general elections, the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff in Georgia when no candidate gets more than 50% plus one vote. Louisiana is the only other state that has runoff elections for general elections in certain races and instances.

“Georgia is one of the only states in the country with a general election runoff,” Raffensperger said. “We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I’m calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the general election runoff and consider reforms.”

Georgia lawmakers convene in January for the 2023 legislative session where they can address the proposal, which comes after highly a contentious Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.

Just weeks before the runoff, Warnock’s campaign, along with other Democratic entities, sued the state to allow for Saturday voting in the runoff due to uncertainties surrounding Georgia’s Republican-led election law that was approved in 2021.

The new law shortened the general election runoff period from at least two months to one month and was also interpreted by some to prevent early voting on the Saturday after a state holiday. A Fulton County Superior Court judge ruled Nov. 18 to allow Saturday voting to be held Nov. 26, which is two days after Thanksgiving and one day after the state-observed holiday for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s birthday. Raffensperger attempted to appeal the judge’s decision.

“No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday,” Raffensperger said. “It’s even tougher on the counties who had a difficult time completing all of their deadlines, an election audit and executing a runoff in a four-week time period.”

Warnock was ultimately reelected to the seat in the runoff after receiving 51.4%, or more more than 1.82 million votes; Walker trailed by approximately 99,000 votes. In the general election, Warnock had 49.4% of votes, or 35,000 more votes than Walker, who yielded 48.5%. The libertarian candidate had the remaining votes.

Warnock also won his seat in a special election runoff in Jan. 2021, filling the unexpired term of former Sen. Johnny Isakson, who retired in December 2019. Democrat Jon Ossoff also defeated incumbent Republican David Perdue in that runoff for Georgia’s second U.S. Senate seat.