The first day of early voting in the battleground state of Georgia saw a record turnout, revealing a high level of engagement in the key battleground state.
Gabriel Sterling, the Chief Operating Officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office said in a post on X that more than 328,000 ballots were cast in person or by mail on Tuesday, October 15, 2024.
He aptly described the turnout as a “blowout.”
Tuesday’s voter tally in Georgia blew away the state’s previous record for the first day of in-person early voting, set in 2020. Sterling stated that the previous first day record was 136,000 in 2020.
In that year, Joe Biden became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992 to win the state – after scraping through with fewer than 12,000 votes.
In an earlier post, Sterling said, “As of 4pm [ET] we have crossed the quarter million mark with 251,899 votes cast. Spectacular turnout. We are running out of adjectives for this.”
Tuesday’s tally has been interpreted as a sign of voter enthusiasm, particularly as the presidential race enters its final stretch. Election day; the final opportunity to cast a ballot, is set for November 5, 2024.
Historically, large turnouts for early voting have favoured Democrats, although both parties have been urging voters to go to the polls early in states where it is allowed.
US presidential elections are ultimately determined through a weighted voting system called the Electoral College.
Each state has a certain number of Electoral College votes to award, and most grant those votes in a winner-takes-all system: Whichever candidate wins the state — no matter how small the margin — receives all the Electoral College votes.
Georgia, with its 16 Electoral College votes, is one of seven tightly-fought swing states, which could lean either Democrat or Republican this election cycle. Other battleground states include Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina.
Close races in those states could determine who becomes the next President.
Both Harris’ and Trump’s campaigns have set their sights on winning Georgia. Trump rallied in its capital, Atlanta, on Tuesday, and Harris is set to hold her own event in the city on Saturday.
In 2020, President Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win the state since 1992, a victory largely attributed to a huge uptick in Black voting. Black residents account for about one-third of Georgia’s population.
However, with a margin of victory of just 11,779, the state also became a key lever in Trump’s campaign to overturn Biden’s victory.
Absentee Ballot Not Affected By Storm
Parts of the state are continuing to recover from Hurricane Helene, which hit the US last month and wreaked havoc on several other states in the Southeast.
Georgia election officials said that absentee ballots went out by the US Postal Service as scheduled and were not impacted by the storm.
According to Experts, some new state laws that tightened rules for absentee ballots and cracked down on the availability of drop boxes may make the option less appealing than early in-person voting.
While many drop boxes were available 24/7 in 2020, this year there will be fewer of them, and they will be in election offices or early vote locations with hours that tend to mimic normal business hours.
It’s also possible that the state could continue to see high numbers of early votes given that Georgia law now mandates two Saturdays of early voting and allows for two Sundays of early voting if a county desires.
Every vote matters, and the citizens of Georgia are proving just that.
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