Georgia early voting continues to shatter records

More than 1 million Georgians cast their ballots in this year’s midterm elections through eight days of early voting in the state, according to Georgia’s secretary of state, smashing the previous record eight-day totals in 2018 by more than 50%, with less than two weeks to go before Election Day.

“We need to encourage everyone to go out to vote and not discourage them,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Tuesday at a press conference at Georgia’s Capitol, praising the state’s early voting success. “We need to let them know their vote will be counted and counted accurately, not that their vote will be stolen.”

Georgia has several consequential races on the ballot this year, including a marquee Senate contest between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, and a gubernatorial showdown between Republican incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams.

No strangers to close elections, many Georgians understand the power of every single vote. The presidential election two years ago was decided by fewer than 12,000 votes, and the 2018 race between Kemp and Abrams was decided by fewer than 55,000 votes.

“Every voter — Republican, Democrat and independent — understands that their vote is extremely valuable in this state,” Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the secretary of state’s office, said Tuesday. “Don’t worry about them saying, ‘You’re behind’ or ‘Your party is ahead.’ Get out and vote.”

Through Tuesday, 1,123,329 Georgians had already voted — 1,017,743 in person and 105,586 by absentee ballot — a figure 51% higher than in 2018, according to Georgia Votes. Of those voters, 33% were Black or Hispanic, while 57% were white.

“It’s only been four years, but the demographic transformation of the state has been quite rapid,” Bernard L. Fraga, a professor of political science at Emory University who studies voter turnout patterns, told the Washington Post. “Communities of color may think they have to turn out and mobilize for fear that something could happen to their vote.”

So far, about 18% of voters in Georgia who cast their ballots early this year had in 2018 waited until Election Day to vote, while another 17% of early voters didn’t vote in the last midterm at all. More than 4 million Georgians will likely vote in this year’s midterm elections, surpassing the midterm record of 3.9 million in 2018, with at least half of those voters expected to vote early. The final count is likely to fall just shy of the record 5 million voters in 2020. Presidential-year elections typically draw far more voters than midterms.

To date, there have been few reports of long lines at polling stations statewide, though turnout is expected to increase in the days leading up to the final day of early voting, Nov. 4.

“Elections in Georgia are going to be close,” Atlanta-based political strategist Fred Hicks told Yahoo News, acknowledging polarizing issues like abortion and crime, among others, on the ballot in this year’s races. “There’s a bedrock number of people who are going to vote Democrat or Republican, no matter what.”

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Cover thumbnail: Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images