Turnout in Georgia’s election surged past 1 million voters Tuesday, continuing a daily trend of record-breaking participation in a midterm election with two weeks remaining before Election Day.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said voters are flocking to in-person early voting locations, which are open six days a week for three weeks across Georgia. Fifteen counties also offered Sunday voting.
“This isn’t a victory lap yet. We’re about halfway through the second quarter, but we need to encourage everyone to go out to vote and not discourage them,” Raffensperger said Tuesday at a press conference at the Capitol. “We need to let them know their vote will be counted and counted accurately, not that their vote will be stolen.”
By the time polls close at 7 p.m. on Nov. 8, overall turnout is expected to easily surpass the 3.9 million Georgia voters who participated in the last midterm election four years ago but likely fall short of the 5 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election.
Through Monday, nearly 987,000 voters had participated in the election, and an additional 38,000 showed up at polling places Tuesday morning, pushing Georgia over the 1 million mark, interim Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling said.
Turnout this year is 55% higher than at this point in the 2018 midterms, according to state election data. About 90% of voters cast ballots in person, and the remaining 10% had returned absentee ballots.
Voters are turning out because they know Georgia is such a competitive state, with the presidential election decided by fewer than 12,000 votes two years ago and the governor’s election settled by 55,000 votes in 2018, Sterling said. Campaigns have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising to mobilize their bases.
“Every voter — Republican, Democrat and independent — understands that their vote is extremely valuable in this state,” Sterling said.
It’s unclear whether high turnout benefits one political party over another. So far, female voters and those over 65 have been two of the highest-turnout demographic groups. By race, turnout has been elevated among both Black and white voters, while Hispanic and Asian American voters each accounted for just 1.5% of voters so far.
Georgia’s most populated counties have the largest turnout numbers, led by Fulton County at 127,000 through Monday.
“Don’t worry about them saying, ‘You’re behind’ or ‘Your party is ahead.’ Get out and vote,” Sterling said. “That’s the important thing: Plan your vote and get out and vote.”
Voters can find their early voting locations, Election Day precincts, absentee ballot application forms and sample ballots on the state’s My Voter Page at mvp.sos.ga.gov.
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