If you thought that the US mid-term elections were all done and dusted 4 weeks ago on November 8th then the fact that there is voting today in the state of Georgia might come as a surprise.

In what is unique amongst the 50 states that make up the US Georgia has a law that a winning candidate has to secure more than 50% of the vote and that, by a fraction, did not happen in the first round of voting last month.

So for the past 4 weeks the parties have been slugging it out in a runoff for the top 2 in the state and the signs are that there’s going to be a record turnout. The early voting has been enormous.

A reason why this is attracting so much attention is that the winner will take one of the 100 seats in the Senate. If the Democrats hold on to the small victory they had in the first round then the split in the upper house will be 51 to 49. If Republicans take it then it will be 50-50 and the casting vote will go to the vice president who for the next 2 years will be Kamala Harris – a Democrat.

One factor that is interesting is that on November 8th the same voters backed a new term for the state governor by quite a margin. He’s a Republican.

The Democrat in today’s election is the betting favourite but the 15/1 I got on Betfair on the Republican looks like a value bet.

Mike Smithson