Tuesday, October 15, 2024

'Spectacular turnout': Georgia voters cast record number of early ballots

DAY ONE: 300,000 VOTES

Erik De La Garza
October 15, 2024 

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. (AFP)

Georgia election officials were encouraged Tuesday by the record number of early voters casting ballots in the critical battleground state that faces challenges from Hurricane Helene and litigation over controversial election rule changes.

Over 300,000 ballots were cast Tuesday, the opening day for early voting in the state, Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling announced on X.

“For those that claimed Georgia election laws were Jim Crow 2.0 and those that say democracy is dying…the voters of Georgia would like to have a word. Over 300,000 votes cast today! That’s 123% higher than the old record for the 1st day. Great job counties & voters,” Sterling said.

Earlier in the day, Sterling called the quarter of a million votes cast by 4 p.m. a “spectacular turnout.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wrote in a social media post that Georgia voters “have surpassed all daily records for any day of early voting in 2022.” He added that “Georgia voters are energized!”

“No matter how you look at it, these are huge numbers,” said CNN’s Erin Burnett on her show “OutFront.” She asked veteran Democratic operative David Axelrod to analyze what he saw in the numbers.

“To me, this is a statement on the part of people across the state that, ‘Hey we’re coming, we’re going to vote, we’re not going to be discouraged’ and that, I think, is great.” He added that he believes the turnout is “mildly encouraging for Democrats."

"And certainly it's encouraging for democracy that a record is being broken," Axelrod said. "But it looks like we’re heading for another big election.”



Voters in US state of Georgia hit polls in record numbers as early voting begins
Americas


Almost 1 in 7 voters in the state of Georgia officially submitted their choice for the next US President on the first day of early voting on Tuesday, as Republicans' appeals to vote ahead of election day materialize in the vital battleground state.



Issued on: 16/10/2024 - 
By:NEWS WIRES

Campaign staff members move a sign before a rally for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. © Kevin Dietsch, Getty Images/AFP

Voters in Georgia turned out in record numbers as the battleground state opened early voting for the Nov. 5 presidential election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, state officials said on Tuesday.

At least 252,000 voters had cast ballots at early-voting sites as of 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT), nearly double the 136,000 who participated in the first day of early voting in the 2020 election, said Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's No. 2 election official. "Spectacular turnout," he wrote on social media.

Trump, at a campaign event in Atlanta, expressed enthusiasm for the early vote in Georgia.

"The votes are coming in, and they're coming in at a nice level for us," he said.

Early voting, either in person or by mail, has become increasingly popular with US voters. Nearly 1 in 7 voters cast their ballots ahead of Election Day in 2020, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab. However, many Republicans opposed the dramatic expansion of mail voting that year, saying it was less secure than in-person voting, and Trump cited false claims of mail ballot fraud as he sought unsuccessfully to overturn his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.

Some Republicans continue to insist that voters should be able to cast their ballots only in person on Election Day, though party officials are encouraging supporters to vote ahead of time.

Nationwide, 5.5 million Americans have already voted this year, according to Election Lab. By contrast, 27 million people had cast their ballots at this point in the 2020 election as voters sought to avoid crowded polling places during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like some other states, Georgia has tightened its mail-voting laws since then, requiring voters who want to cast an absentee ballot to provide proof of identity and limiting the number of places they can deposit their ballots.

Georgia is one of the seven competitive battleground states expected to play a decisive role in deciding the election.

(Reuters)

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