Voters headed to the polls in the southern US state of Georgia today for runoff elections that will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the US Senate for the first years of Joe Biden's presidency.
Mr Biden, the President-Elect, and outgoing President Donald Trump both visited the state yesterday to make last-ditch appeals for their candidates.
Mr Trump urged Georgians at a rally to vote for Republican incumbent senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, but spent more time repeating his claims that he won the 3 November presidential election.
Mr Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris have campaigned for the Democrats on the ticket, television producer Jon Ossoff and the Reverend Raphael Warnock, an African-American pastor at the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr once preached.
The Senate runoff vote in Georgia is taking place during a week of high political tensions in the United States, with Mr Trump still trying to reverse his election loss and protests planned in Washington.
Tomorrow, Vice President Mike Pence is to preside over a joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote that confirmed Mr Biden as the winner of the White House race.
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Polls opened at 7am local time in Georgia and a record three million-plus people voted early amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to election officials. Final results may not be known for several days.
Mr Biden beat Mr Trump in Georgia by nearly 12,000 votes and polls have the pair of Senate races neck-and-neck.
Republicans hold 50 seats in the Senate and a victory in just one of the runoff races would give them a majority and the ability to thwart Mr Biden's agenda.
A Democratic sweep would result in a 50-50 split with Democrats holding the tie-breaking vote in vice president-elect Kamala Harris.
The pair of Senate races are the most expensive congressional runoffs in US history. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, $832 million has been spent, including on the primaries and general election, where no candidate cleared the 50% threshold required for victory.
Mr Trump's Georgia rally came a day after The Washington Post published a recording of a phone call in which he pressured Georgia officials to reverse the certified vote of November's election and hand him victory in the state.
Certification of the Electoral College vote is usually just a formality but dozens of House Republicans and 12 Senate Republicans loyal to Mr Trump have said they will raise objections at the joint session of Congress tomorrow.
Such a move would prompt a debate and a floor vote that is doomed to fail in the Democratic-controlled House and in the Senate, where leading Republicans have acknowledged Mr Biden's victory.
The role of Vice President Mike Pence is to read out the certified results.
Despite President Trump's exhortations and barring a last-minute surprise, he does not have the power to reject the certification and block Mr Biden's victory.
