Georgia sees record-breaking turnout as early voting kicks off

Georgiaʼs early voting period for the November election kicked off with a bang on 10/15/2024 smashing previous records and showing high voter engagement. More than 300‚000 Georgians cast their ballots on the first day doubling the states previous day-one record

The momentum didnt slow down on the second day. By 11:30 am on 10/16/2024 over 88000 votes had already been tallied according to data from this crucial battleground state. Gabriel Sterling a top state elections official shared on social media that the numbers indicated they would surpass half a million votes cast by the end of the day – thats roughly 10% of the turnout seen in 2020

The record-breaking turnout likely reflects partisan enthusiasm on both sides of the aisle though its unclear from this limited data what it means (if anything) for the overall state of the race. Political consultants in Georgia found the continued heavy turnout into the second day particularly noteworthy

There may be several reasons for this spike in early voting:

• Georgians can avoid the hours-long lines and delayed mail-in ballots that have plagued past contests
• The 2020 election was conducted during the height of the coronavirus pandemic
• The state sent mail-in ballot applications to every Georgia voter in 2020

Brad Raffensperger Georgiaʼs Secretary of State reported that the state hit the 234000-ballot mark by 3:30 pm on the first day. The Republican who has been critical of how Democratic areas have run their elections had no complaints this time tweeting: “Our county election directors are outstanding and Georgia voters are energized!“

Georgia voters are energized!

Its worth noting that Georgiaʼs elections have been under scrutiny since 2020 when Raffensperger became widely known after he refused former president Donald Trumpʼs request to “find“ enough votes to win the state

So far in this presidential election the five core counties of Metro Atlanta – which voted heavily for Joe Biden in 2020 – have contributed more than a quarter of the in-person early votes. As of 11:30 am on the second day Fulton County (home to Atlanta and about 10% of all Georgia residents) had seen more than 49000 people vote at its 37 sites. Suburban DeKalb County recorded over 26000 ballots while another metro Atlanta county Cobb had tallied more than 28000 votes

While Cobb County reported the longest voting lines with waits up to 75 minutes most places saw lines dissipate quickly usually within 5 to 10 minutes. As Sterling humorously put it: “Its like Chick-fil-A. Theres a line but it moves“