This post will be updated daily by GPB News throughout early voting. Click here for updates.
Georgia voters are casting their ballots early in record numbers for a midterm election as in-person early voting continues. As of Saturday, Oct. 29, more than 1.63 million people voted by mail or in person.
So far, early voting in Georgia has been marked by a higher share of older voters and Black voters than similar times in previous elections, as hotly contested races for governor and U.S. Senator have drawn unprecedented fundraising and interest in midterm elections here.
New absentee by mail rules enacted under Georgia’s sweeping SB 202 means the deadline to request a mail-in ballot was Friday, Oct. 28. According to the state’s absentee voter file, more than 275,000 Georgians requested a mail-in ballot and nearly 150,000 of them have already been returned.
Many of the voters who have participated so far are typical early voters who participate regularly in elections. As of Saturday, Oct. 29 roughly 92% of the 1,634,330 early voters who have cast ballots for this election also voted in the 2021 U.S. Senate runoffs; 93% voted in the 2020 presidential race and 82% voted in the 2018 midterms.
Nearly 79% of early voters cast ballots in all three elections, while roughly 4.9%, or 79,781 voters, did not vote in any of the three elections.
Black voters make up roughly 29% of Georgia’s 7.8 million registered voters and 30% of the early vote so far.
Democratic governor nominee Stacey Abrams in particular has made targeting newly-registered voters and those who don’t vote often an integral part of her campaign. Approximately 27% of these new voters are Black, 52% are women and 49% registered in 2022.
Click through the tabs in the graphics below to see more voter turnout data, including turnout for Black and white voters as well as by county, plus how the early vote so far compares to total votes in 2018.
This story comes to The Current GA through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a non-profit newsroom covering the state of Georgia.