Early voting in Georgia on record-setting pace

ATLANTA — Early voting in Georgia ahead of the May 24 primaries is breaking records, defying the historical trend of lower turnouts in non-presidential election years.

Through Tuesday, 254,556 Georgians had taken advantage of the early voting period that began May 2 to cast their primary ballots, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reported Wednesday. The vast majority — 234,893 — voted in person, while the rest submitted absentee ballots.

Early voting is running 239% ahead of the same point in the early voting period leading up to the 2018 primaries and 160% above the same point prior to the 2020 primaries.

As of the end of day Monday, 14,493 Cobb Countians had voted early in-person over seven days of early voting, according to data from Cobb Elections.

Of those roughly 14,500 ballots cast, 5,620 were Democratic primary ballots, 8,662 were Republican primary ballots and 211 were nonpartisan ballots.

Cobb elections has issued 6,916 absentee ballots, 1,551 of which have been accepted and 22 of which have been rejected. Friday is the last day to request absentee ballots for the May 24 election.

Early voting is available for the rest of this week through Saturday, and next week Monday through Friday. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

There are 10 early voting locations across Cobb. For more information, visit cobbcounty.org/elections/voting/advance-voting.

“The record early voting turnout is a testament to the security of the voting system and the hard work of our county election officials,” said Raffensperger, who was the target of unsubstantiated charges of lax ballot security leveled by then-President Donald Trump after Democrat Joe Biden carried Georgia in 2020.

“As secretary of state, I promised to strike a strong balance between access and security in our elections, and these numbers demonstrate that I kept that promise and that voters have confidence in Georgia’s elections.”

Raffensperger supported election law changes the Republican-controlled General Assembly enacted last year that replaced the signature-match verification process for absentee ballots with an ID requirement and restricted the location of ballot drop boxes.

Through Tuesday, 146,425 voters had cast Republican primary ballots, compared to 106,188 cast by Democrats.

The top of the Republican ballot includes a hotly contested race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination between incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and former U.S. Sen. David Perdue.

University of Georgia football great Herschel Walker is on the GOP ballot for the right to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, a nomination Walker is a strong favorite to win.

On the Democratic side, Stacey Abrams is unopposed in the gubernatorial primary, while Warnock drew only token opposition for the Democratic nomination to seek reelection to the Senate.

Primary voters have until this Friday to request an absentee ballot. Early voting will continue through Friday, May 20.