Early voting ended in Georgia with a record 4 million ballots cast before Election Day, a huge turnout featuring many first-time voters, women and voters over 50 years old.
Nearly 3.8 million people voted in person during three weeks of early voting, including a crush of 292,000 voters on Friday, the final day. Another 242,000 voters have returned absentee ballots to push the swing state over the 4 million mark.
No votes will be counted until Tuesday, so it’s impossible to know whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump is leading in Georgia, but early voters show several trends:
- More than 834,000 of this year’s early voters didn’t participate in the 2020 election, a group that includes new Georgia residents and voters who turned 18 during the past four years.
- Women are outpacing men in Georgia, accounting for 56% of voters so far in the election.
- Older voters dominated early voting, accounting for 58% of overall turnout so far, a higher rate than their 45% of all registered voters in Georgia.
- White voters made up 58% of Georgia’s early turnout, more than their 51% share of the state’s registered voters. Black voters were 26% of early participants, lower than their 30% statewide share.
Early and absentee turnout this year was 3% higher than in 2020. By the time all votes were counted after Election Day four years ago, more than 5 million ballots had been cast.
If more than 1 million people show up on Tuesday, Georgia will break its previous turnout record from 2020.
Absentee ballots must be received at election offices by 7 p.m. Tuesday, with the exception of absentee ballots by military personnel, overseas voters and more than 3,000 Cobb County voters who received their absentee ballots late. Those absentee ballots will be counted if they’re postmarked by Election Day and received at election offices by Friday.
Voters won’t have to wait long on election night to find out which candidates these 4 million early voters chose.
All early votes and absentee ballots returned by Monday must be publicly reported within one hour of polls closing on election night, according to a new state law. Election Day vote counts will then pour in over the next few hours.
By the end of election night, almost all ballots will be counted, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the winner will be known. Those overseas, military, provisional and absentee ballots due by Friday could make a difference in a close race.
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