Georgia voters broke records on day 16 of early voting with a high turnout. At the end of the early voting period, 2,289,502 people voted in-person. Also, 219,615 absentee ballots were accepted, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
According to the same data, 1.4 million are identified as White not of Hispanic origin and 732,804 are Black not of Hispanic origin. The white ballots make up 57.4% of the 2 million-plus early votes. The Black ballots are 29.2%. Hispanics (47,574) make up just 1.9% of early ballots. 233,370 of the ballots are classified as other/unlnown.
Georgia, according to the Secretary of State’s Office (SOS), the record early voting turnout increased to nearly twice the number on the first day of early voting in 2018. As of day 17, of early voting in 2018, only about 1.4 million voters had been casts.
“By close of business today, two million Georgians will have cast their ballot in person – a record for early voting in a midterm,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a press release last month. “Georgia is the state where voters show up early, and our county election directors have created that infrastructure to make it a resounding success.”
Raffensperger also encourages every eligible voter to get their ballot in for the remainder of early voting, which ended Friday, Nov. 4.
“It doesn’t matter when you cast your vote, it only matters that you do cast your vote. Take advantage of the flexibility offered during the last week of early voting,” he said in a press release.
Raffensperger also said voting in Georgia is “safe, secure, and accessible.”
“It’s the work of our Elections Division and the county election directors that have gotten us here. Voting in Georgia is safe, secure, and accessible – and Georgians know that” he said in a press release.
Additionally, according to the SOS Office, voters have begun to return Absentee (mail) ballots at a higher pace, and as of Thursday morning, 193,978 ballots have been returned to county election offices.
Only 1,533 ballots have been rejected statewide, and according to the Secretary of State’s Office, those voters receive cure notices explaining how they can cure any discrepancy.