Since Monday, a record number of 434,567 Georgians have voted early in a midterm election, despite claims by the left that a new Republican law in the state would lead to voter suppression.
In response to allegations of rampant fraud in the 2020 election, the new Georgia legislation restricts voting by mail and mandates 17 days of in-person early voting in the three weeks preceding Election Day, November 8.
Despite assertions from civil rights organizations, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and President Joe Biden that the restrictions would restrict voting access, it appears that more Georgia voters were encouraged to vote early.
The first day of early voting in Georgia increased from 71,000 in 2014 to 131,000 in 2018, an 85 percent increase from the last midterm election in 2018.
With 19 days remaining until Election Day, the United States Elections Project reports that about 4.5 million individuals have voted early across the country. Nearly half a million of them individuals are from Georgia.
Florida is by far the state with the most early ballots cast, with 837,948 mail-in ballots cast early. In Florida, there are 14,460,000 registered voters, and 4,200,000 have requested mail-in ballots.
Other states with a large number of early voters include California, with 441 031, and the battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania, with 432 960 and 364 464 voters, respectively.
According to the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, there are more than 7 million registered voters in Georgia.
New revisions to Georgia’s election regulations mandate that polling places be open on weekdays and at least two Saturdays preceding Election Day. However, they must be closed on the penultimate weekend and Monday preceding the Tuesday election.
Abrams stated in March 2021 that Republicans lobbying for new voting rules in Georgia were “racist,” calling it “Jim Crow in a suit.”
Georgia will host many crucial November Senate and statewide elections.
Former NFL player and Trump-backed contender Herschel Walker is attempting to unseat Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock. If Walker is successful in turning the seat red, he might help the Republicans recapture the majority in the Senate.
In a rematch against Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who defeated him in the 2018 midterm elections, Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is also attempting to retain his position.
Abrams has reintroduced her attack line against Kemp from their previous contest, claiming he ‘assiduously denied access to the right to vote’ and describing him as the ‘principal architect of contemporary voter suppression.’
While early voting exceeded expectations, some polling locations in the Atlanta region reported wait times of over an hour.
eNet, the state’s voter registration system, has caused problems in the past and contributed to these wait times, according to state officials.
While some states provide in-person early voting, the vast majority of early voting thus far is based on mail-in ballots delivered before to November’s election.