1 of 2 | People wait in line to cast their ballots Tuesday during the first day of advanced voting in Georgia for the U.S. presidential election and other races at the main Dekalb County Voter Registration and Elections Office in Decatur, Georgia. Voters shattered turnout records for the first day with more than 300,000 ballots cast. Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE
Oct. 15 (UPI) — Georgia voters shattered turnout records Tuesday on the first day of advanced voting for next month’s election in the battleground state, according to Georgia secretary of state officials.
More than 300,000 ballots were cast Tuesday in stark contrast to the previous first day record of 136,000 in 2020, according to Gabe Sterling of the Georgia secretary of state’s office, who said, “That’s 123% higher than the old record for the first day.”
“Spectacular turnout. We are running out of adjectives for this,” Sterling added in a post on X.
Absentee ballots in Georgia began being mailed out last week, while overseas and military ballots were sent last month.
While Georgia has no statewide races this election, the presidential contest is likely the biggest draw as Democrats and Republicans have lobbied for people to vote early.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, are battling for the state’s 16 electoral votes. President Joe Biden carried Georgia in 2020 by 12,670 votes over Trump, becoming the first Democrat to win Georgia since 1992.
Georgia is one of seven swing states and has three weeks of early voting. Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Atlanta on Tuesday night after the first day of voting. Harris is expected to visit Atlanta this weekend.
“If you want to vote absentee, make that decision today and get your request in,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger advised voters Tuesday morning, while predicting about 60% to 65% of Georgia voters will participate in the early voting process.
“If you are going to vote early, take a look at your calendar and decide when you are going to vote early, and if you are going to vote on Election Day, decide what time,” Raffensperger added.
On Tuesday, Raffensperger reported “there appeared to be no slowdowns and lines have been moving.”
Besides being a swing state, Georgia is also being closely watched due to new changes in how it conducts elections amid a flurry of legal challenges.
The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia filed a lawsuit in August against the Georgia State Election Board over new certification rules that they argued could cause confusion and delays.
On Tuesday, a Georgia state judge rejected the Republican-led effort to broaden the power of county election officials, ruling they had an obligation to certify election results without delay.
New state laws also tighten the rules for absentee ballots and provide fewer drop boxes with limited hours.
Raffensperger vowed Tuesday that safeguards are in place to ensure a fair election, adding that voting equipment will be randomly inspected and every race will be audited.
“Pulling out a piece of equipment, a random audit on Election Day, bring it to headquarters and then verify that it is recording the votes accurately, that it has not been hacked by any bad actors out there,” Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday.
“We also think that voting should be fun, so lines have to be shorter than one hour. We think that’s important,” he added. “We’re going to make sure that we have safe, secure, accurate elections and we’ve been working on that.”