Rebecca Hartmann
Reporting from Georgia

The reason this election went to a run-off in the first place is largely because of one man: Chase Oliver. The Libertarian candidate got only 2% of the vote in the November midterms – but it was enough to keep both Walker and Warnock under 50% of the vote – triggering today’s run-off.

Oliver told the BBC he is not voting today, and has been encouraging his supporters to abstain, too. He claimed “neither candidate made any attempt to reach out to the over 80,000 people who voted for me or the 2 million who didn’t vote at all”.

Both Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock’s campaigns have focused on getting their voters to the polls. At Walker’s final campaign stop, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley told the crowd: “There’s no red wave. There’s either turn out or not”. Senator Warnock’s campaign has focused on getting voters to cast their ballot early.

Oliver told the BBC he now wants to take his campaign nationwide, announcing he is exploring running to be the the Libertarian presidential candidate.

“I think voters deserve an option outside of a broken two party system that’s likely to be headed up by two men who will be 80-years-old or nearly 80-years-old. It’s time for a new generation to solve problems”.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

As more votes come in, the outlook is getting darker for Herschel Walker. While the Republican is generally matching his November results in rural counties, metropolitan Atlanta is starting to pour in Democratic votes.

With roughly half the precincts reporting in Dekalb County, Warnock is ahead by a margin of 83% - well over his 70% mark in November. In Fulton County, Warnock is up by 65% compared to 49% last month. In Cobb, Warnock won in November by 16%. He leads by 31% at the moment.

If these margins hold, it will be an uphill battle for Walker the rest of the evening.

It's two hours after polls have closed and just over two million votes have been counted with 50% of counties and precincts fully reporting, according to Georgia's secretary of state election website.

Walker has taken the lead over Warnock - but the two remain within a percentage point as the race remains too close to call.

The results remain unofficial and incomplete at the moment, and we will continue to bring you the latest as they come in.

Gary O'Donoghue
Reporting from Georgia

Image source, BBC News

It is always a sign of a confident campaign if they have lots of so-called surrogates (spokespeople not actually employed by the campaign) lined up to speak to journalists. In a little pen at the front of the Warnock election party in a grand Atlanta hotel, we have lots of these surrogates tonight.

One is a tall man with a beard; he's wearing a dapper suit and he's the grandson of America's 39th President.

Jason Carter, like his grandfather, is steeped in Georgian politics, having run for governor eight years ago. He's upbeat about Raphael Warnock's chances of holding onto the Senate seat for the Democrats and so is his grandfather, the former president, apparently.

"He streams the services from Pastor Warnock's church," says Jason of his grandfather - that church in downtown Atlanta where Martin Luther King Jr once preached his sermons.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Votes are starting to be tallied in Georgia, and some rural counties have nearly finished reporting their counts. The results are modestly encouraging for Republican Herschel Walker. Despite some predictions to the contrary, his support is holding strong.

The former American football star is slightly improving on his vote margins through many of the counties that have more than 95% of precincts reporting. There are just a handful – Johnson, Chattahoochee and Ben Hill among them – where Raphael Warnock has cut into Walker’s margins.

Of course, Walker will have to improve his vote count across the board by approximately 1% to close the margin his Democratic opponent led by in last month’s general election. And with much of the Atlanta metropolitan area yet to report, even the slightest Warnock improvement in that vote-rich area will easily wash away any Walker gains in the countryside.

Walker and Warnock had no chance to rest after the November midterm elections - they both went right back to campaigning.

Here's a look at their final pitch to Georgia voters, in their own words:

Kayla Epstein
BBC Digital Reporter

Georgia’s election system was under close scrutiny during the 2022 election for two reasons.

First, in 2021, the Republican-controlled legislature passed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s elections system. Voting rights advocates expressed concern at major provisions that shortened the absentee voting period and gave more power over elections to the legislature. Supporters of the law point to a faster deadline for reporting results, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, a Republican, said that Georgia’s law made it “easy to vote and hard to cheat”.

Second, while Trump isn’t on the ballot, the aftershocks of 2020 are still being felt in Georgia during this election cycle.

Donald Trump attempted to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 election results after he lost the state to Joe Biden. An infamous recording captured Trump asking Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” that would reverse the result. A prosecutor in Fulton County is investigating whether Trump and his associates committed election-related crimes.

While there have been isolated cases of counties not sending absentee ballots on time or voters reporting their registrations were challenged, there have not been any significant systemic failures in Georgia's election administration this year. The early voting period saw lines stretching over an hour, but state officials reported quick wait times for much of election day.

Georgia election officials held a press conference shortly after the polls closed. Officials emphasised the ease of voting despite what they described as a record turnout. They also touted the election's fairness.

Georgia had a "record voter turnout across the board", Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer in the Georgia Secretary of State's office said during the press conference.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said it was "absolutely amazing".

"It has never been easier to vote in Georgia."

About 1.4 million people voted on election day in addition to record early voting turnout, Sterling estimated.

Officials said it was still too close to call a winner. Four polls remain open where voters entered the line before the time polls closed. The polls will remain open until they have cast their vote.

Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

This Georgia senate race is historic. It’s the first time in the state’s history that two black candidates have been nominated by both major political parties.

For many, it is a symbol of a long awaited change.

Nearly 2,000 people have served in the US Senate. However, only 11 of them have been black (Warnock is the 11th black senator).

Georgia, a former Confederate state which fought to keep slavery during America’s Civil War, is located in the Deep South – a region of the US where the history of racism is considered to be the starkest.

But for black voters there, what should be a widely celebrated occasion has instead become a source of mixed emotions.

Republican Herschel Walker enters the race rife with controversy. He’s been accused of abuse by his ex-partners; reported to have funded the abortions of multiple women despite his campaign’s anti-abortion stance; and he’s been the butt of jokes by late night comedy hosts making fun of his intelligence.

“It is a very historic moment,” Dacia Davis, 45, a black voter in Georgia told the New York Times. “But it is sort of like a bittersweet moment.”

Either way, tonight’s winner will be the first full-term black senator elected in the state.

Image source, Getty Images

Gary O'Donoghue
Reporting from Georgia

Polls have just closed here in Georgia.

This has been a tightly fought and bitter race – with both sides airing highly personal attack ads, spending tens of millions of dollars in the process, while scarcely moving the needle.

If the incumbent Democrat, Raphael Warnock, wins, it will consolidate Joe Biden’s hold on the Senate and make governing a bit easier.

If Republican Herschel Walker triumphs, it will be a definite boost to the more Trumpian elements in the Republican party who saw many of their favoured candidates fade away during the midterms.

Either way it will tell us something about Georgia and whether it’s political complexion is changing from a deep Republican red, to a more purple state where Democrats can make inroads.

Polls have just closed in Georgia after 12 hours of in-person voting but results may take several hours to come in.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Unlike two years ago, control of the US Senate does not hinge on the outcome of a Georgia run-off. That doesn’t mean that there is nothing at stake in Tuesday’s contest, however.

If Republican Herschel Walker wins, the Senate will remain equally divided. While Vice-President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote gives Democrats effective control, there are still limits to their power.

Membership in Senate committees would remain equally divided, giving Republicans the ability to slow down legislation and delay confirmation of Joe Biden’s executive and judicial appointments. And Harris would still have to stay close to the Capitol, lest her deciding vote is needed.

A Raphael Warnock win would change all that. And while the chances for legislative successes are limited given Republican control of the House of Representatives, Democrats can pick up the pace in appointing liberal judges to the federal courts, where they will serve lifelong terms.

The Georgia result will also determine whether Republicans have to flip an additional seat to win back control of the Senate in 2024. Although the map looks good for them – Democrats are defending considerably more at-risk incumbents than Republicans – there’s no telling what the political environment will be like in two years.

This is Senator Raphael Warnock’s second appearance in a Georgia run-off in less than two years - and his fourth election in the same time span.

His win during a special election in 2020, after then-Senator Johnny Isakson’s early resignation, made Warnock only the 11th black senator in US history.

Before politics, Warnock was a graduate from Morehouse College, a historically black university, and a senior pastor at the Atlanta church where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr once preached.

Image source, Getty Images

For Republican opponent Herschel Walker, it’s his first foray into politics. He is most well-known for his athletic achievements as an American football player at the University of Georgia spent years competing in the NFL.

Walker’s unlikely ascension has been bolstered by support from former US President Donald Trump - who appeared alongside him in a tele-rally on Monday night.

Walker has been the subject of recent controversy after multiple women accused him of funding their abortions, contradicting his vocal anti-abortion stance.

Despite this setback, Georgia has a strong Republican contingent and many state races - including governor - went for the Republicans in November.

Image source, Getty Images

Gary O'Donoghue
Reporting from Georgia

When voters in Georgia got up this morning and looked out the window, they saw grey skies and rain.

For some that will have been enough to put them off bothering to head to the polling station – the fear of all political campaign staff on both sides of the divide.

But it’s a factor that will have weighed particularly heavily on Republican minds since the incumbent Democrat, Raphael Warnock, is thought to be ahead in the early, pre-election day voting, with Herschel Walker hoping to make up ground on polling day itself.

At one polling station in Cobb County, Teresa had braved the weather though she said she hadn’t at all liked the tone of the campaign on either side, particularly the negative advertising.

After tonight that will disappear from her television screen for a couple of years or so, and Georgia will know whether the Democrats have held onto both their Senate seats, marking a definite shift in the political complexion of the state.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Polls in Georgia close in one hour.

We might get a result this evening but there could be a delay due to record early voter turnout.

For the 8 November midterm election, the state had counted most votes by 2:00 local time (7:00 GMT), with nearly all ballots tallied by 12:00 local time (17:00 GMT) the day after the election.

Kayla Epstein
BBC Digital Reporter

Georgia voters are heading back to the polls just four weeks after a much-hyped general election. But far from being annoyed, several told me during a trip to Georgia last month that they were eager to see the election through.

“I am feeling confident,” said Beverly Burks, the mayor of Clarkston, Georgia, who was attending a rally for Democrat Warnock shortly after the November election. “We are confident that we’re going to get the people out.”

“It is more than just Georgia, it’s the country, and the balance of power” at stake, Burks said.

Warnock came out slightly ahead in the November midterm election, and has leaned into the early voting period in Georgia over the last few weeks - urging his supporters to “vote like it’s an emergency”. His backers have taken to chanting “one more time!” at his campaign events.

“My late father instilled in me that it was very important to do so, to go vote,” said Scott Strickland, 59, of Gainesville. “My wife calls me the nerd of the family, because I vote whenever there’s a city council election.”

The Republican said he would vote for Herschel Walker for Senate, just as he had in the first round of the election in November. But he didn’t plan on getting too hung up on the outcome.

“Whether my guy wins or loses I have to get up and provide for my family,” Strickland said. “You go on and live your life.”

Only two US states, Georgia and Louisiana, have a run-off voting system. Run-off elections occur when neither candidate reaches the required minimum, or 50% of the total votes.

In November, Georgia Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock received 49.4% of votes. Republican challenger Herschel Walker inched in just below at 48.5%. Chase Oliver, a Libertarian candidate, captured 2.1% of voters and absorbed the narrow margin needed for either candidate to win.

Although Democrats already hold a majority of seats in the Senate, a victory tonight in Georgia would cement their grip on the upper chamber of congress.

It's election night in America - again.

Voters in the US state of Georgia have two more hours to head to the polls to cast a ballot in the run-off election for US senator.

Neither candidate secured a large enough majority in the November midterm election to be declared the winner, which is why voters in Georgia are back at the polls today.

The race is between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Whoever wins tonight will spend the next six years in the Senate - the upper chamber of US Congress.

The winner will fill the 100th and final seat of the Senate where Democrats currently have a slim majority.

We'll be bringing you live coverage as the results come in - stay tuned.