Georgia sets new state record for early in-person voting

Georgia voters broke the state's all-time record for early in-person midterm voting on Thursday. By 1:35 p.m., the number of ballots cast in person surpassed the previous high set during the 2022 cycle.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office reported that 2,294,275 residents had voted early in person by that time. The previous record, established in 2022, stood at 2,289,951 votes. This milestone arrived one day before advance in-person voting ends statewide.

The state is also on track to break its record for total early turnout when mail-in absentee ballots are included. Four years ago, Georgia recorded 2.5 million early votes. Currently, more than 30% of the state's 7.5 million active registered voters have submitted their ballots.

Demographic data from Thursday shows a gender gap in early voting. Women cast 56% of the early ballots, while men cast 44%. Among racial and ethnic groups, white voters accounted for approximately 50% of early turnout. Black voters made up roughly 30%, Hispanic voters about 3%, and Asian voters 2%.

Raffensperger attributed the high participation to local election officials and voter confidence. He made these remarks after early voting crossed the 2 million threshold earlier in the week. The state's election data reflects the volume of votes processed by mid-afternoon on the penultimate day of early voting.