Record-Setting Pace: More Than 600,000 Ballots Cast in Georgia Early Voting

Voters wait in line to cast their ballots during the first day of early voting in the U.S. Senate runoff, in Atlanta on Dec. 14, 2020. Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

The Georgia Secretary of State’s office said on Oct. 17 that residents are casting early-voting ballots in record numbers for the 2024 election, noting that more than 600,000 early and mail-in votes had been confirmed as of Oct. 16.

“We are approaching 590,000 early votes cast [with] 34,272 accepted absentees,” Gabriel Sterling, the office’s chief operations officer, wrote on social media platform X.

With 620,000 votes cast in Georgia, the state has an 8.6 voter turnout so far, Sterling said, describing those figures as “massive numbers.”

“We continue on the record setting pace and we are thankful for our election workers at the counties and our voters,” Sterling wrote in a separate comment on X.

He did not provide a breakdown by party, age, race, or other voter data. However, the University of Florida’s Election Lab, which provided figures similar to Sterling’s, shows that the vast majority of early voters are age 41 or older.

More than 44 percent are older than age 65, 41.2 percent are ages 41 to 65, 10.3 percent are ages 26 to 40, and 4.1 percent are ages 18 to 25, according to the election tracker website.

About 54 percent who have voted early are female, 44 percent are male, and another 1 percent were marked as “unknown,” the election website shows. About 58 percent are white, 28.6 percent are black, 2 percent are Hispanic, 1.8 percent are Asian, 0.4 percent are Native American, and 9.3 percent are unknown, other, or multiple.

“For those that claimed Georgia election laws were Jim Crow 2.0 and those that say democracy is dying ... the voters of Georgia would like to have a word. Over 300,000 votes cast today,” Sterling wrote in a separate post. “That’s 123 percent higher than the old record for the 1st day. Great job counties & voters.”

He was likely referring to a 2021 law that cleared the state Legislature and was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp that mandated voter identification for absentee ballots, drop box security, mandatory early voting dates, and other provisions.

The law drew pushback from Democrats, with President Joe Biden claiming that the measure harkens back to Jim Crow-era laws that enforced racial segregation. Some major corporations, including Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines, offered critical public comments about the measure after it was signed more than three years ago.

Georgia is considered a key battleground state in the 2024 presidential election, with polls showing Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s candidate, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, in a tight race in the Peach State.

In 2020, Georgia election officials certified the race in favor of Biden over Trump by a narrow 11,779-vote margin. As it did in 2020, Georgia will provide the state’s winner with 16 electoral votes for the 2024 election.

Trump, meanwhile, was declared the winner by Georgia election officials in 2016 over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by 211,141 votes.

An aggregate of recent Georgia polls shows that Trump is leading Harris 48.7 percent to 47.8 percent. However, the most recent poll, a Quinnipiac University survey, shows Trump ahead by a 6-point margin in the state.

Georgia Judges Issue Election Rulings

The early election data update comes as Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox ruled on Oct. 16 that Georgia’s State Election Board had no authority to implement seven new rules that target election certification, absentee ballots, and vote counting.

His order voided the seven challenged rules, finding that they violated state law, the Georgia Constitution, and the U.S. Constitution.

Earlier in the week, another Fulton County judge issued a ruling that Georgia county election officials have to certify election results by the statutory deadline regardless of whether there are suspected irregularities or fraud.

“No election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his opinion.