A record number of votes were cast on the first day of early voting in Georgia, according to data from the Secretary of State's office.
Over 300,000 votes were cast by the end of the day on Tuesday, breaking the previous record by nearly 200,000 votes.
“We shattered records today. Georgia’s voting system has proven secure, efficient, & accurate,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wrote on X.
Georgia has emerged as a key battleground state in this year’s election, with Republican nominee Donald Trump currently leading Vice President Kamala Harris 49-48 in the state's polling average.
Voting in the state has faced relentless uncertainty and scrutiny in the last few months as the Georgia State Election board passed a number of controversial rules intended to give county election boards discretion in certifying election results. On Tuesday, a Fulton County judge ruled county election boards must certify election results under any circumstances.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won Georgia by a razor-thin margin, which led to a number of attempts to overturn the state's election results. Four years later, election integrity in the swing state remains a concern for both Democrats and Republicans.
Georgia is also grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which killed over 300 people and left thousands without power or water.
Raffensperger said in a press conference Tuesday morning that his office’s goal is to ensure casting a ballot takes as little time as possible, The Georgia Record reported.
“We want to make sure that they’re less than an hour. We loved when we had in 2022 the average wait time was less than three minutes and got down as low as two minutes at times,” Raffensperger said.
Early voting in Georgia ends on Nov. 1, the Friday before Election Day.
