Fulton County, Georgia’s largest, certified its election results on Tuesday.
The county said 424,991 Fulton residents voted in the mid-term, the largest midterm participation this century. That equaled a turnout of 60.4 percent of the voting-age population.
The numbers were led by early voting, which totaled 224,998, said Rick Barron, the county's director of elections and registration. That eclipsed voting the day of the Nov. 6 election, which totaled 180,086 people.
A total of 17,913 people voted absentee by mail.
“The early voting this time was close to a presidential (contest), Barron said.
The news comes just a day after U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg on Monday ordered the state to review provisional ballots to make sure none are improperly rejected and to delay certification of the midterm until Friday.
Fulton received 3,549 provisional ballots, 1,555 of which were rejected, Barron said. A total of 972 of the rejected votes were tossed because they were from “out of county” voters while 581 were from people who were not registered.
Two people who attempted to vote could not prove citizenship.
“We can’t count ballots that are voted out of county,” Barron said.
He said some voter registration drives on college campuses failed to turn in applications, leaving some would-be voters unregistered.
Barron said he did not think any of the judge’s ruling would affect Fulton’s count, but said he did not think this is the last he would hear about it.
“I’m sure because of that ruling we’ll get questions this week,” he said.
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