Stickers sit on a table on the first day of early voting at Atlanta Metropolitan State College on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Early voting takes place from October 15 - November 1, ahead of Election Day on November 5. (Photo by Megan Varner
ATLANTA - Georgia is entering the final week of early voting with nearly 1.8 million ballots accepted ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, according to the latest figures from the Secretary of State’s unofficial turnout dashboard.
ALL RELATED MIDTERM ELECTION STORIES
What we know:
Through Oct. 26, 1,698,469 voters had cast ballots in person and 82,740 absentee ballots had been accepted. The combined total represents 23.7% of Georgia’s 7,530,073 active voters.
The absentee figures show 164,750 ballots requested, 163,873 issued and 83,379 returned, with 82,740 accepted. The number of requests is well below the more than 285,000 submitted during the 2022 midterms. Georgia’s absentee ballot request deadline passed Friday, Oct. 23.
Who has voted
By the numbers:
Among the age groups listed in the data, voters ages 60-64 had the highest count, at 213,257, followed by 209,899 voters ages 65-69. The figures also list 183,217 voters ages 55-59, 159,378 ages 50-54 and 131,615 ages 75-79.
Race and ethnicity records list 890,760 voters as white, 544,112 as Black and 156,447 as other or unknown. The data also lists 46,132 Hispanic or Latino voters, 40,165 Asian or Pacific Islander voters and 6,687 American Indian or Alaska Native voters.
A party-affiliation model attributed to TargetSmart estimated that 54% of early voters aligned with Democrats, 41% with Republicans and 5% with other groups. Georgia does not register voters by party, and the modeled figures do not show which candidates people chose.
Turnout is ahead of the 2022 pace
Big picture view:
Georgia set a record for first-day in-person voting on Oct. 13, when 188,667 ballots were cast, 40% more than on the first day of early voting in 2022. By Oct. 20, in-person voting was 12% ahead of the same point in that midterm election, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
The ballot includes high-profile races for U.S. Senate, where Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff faces Republican Mike Collins, and governor, where Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms faces Republican Rick Jackson. Early voting continues through Friday, Oct. 30. Voters who are registered can also cast a ballot on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3.