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STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. – For weeks, Georgia’s Democratic and Republican parties had urged voters to cast their ballots as soon as possible rather than wait until Election Day. Apparently the voters listened.
More than 1 million Georgians voted early, a dramatic increase since the last midterm election in 2018 and almost on par with the 2020 presidential election, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
Early voting centers opened across Georgia in the past week, and the vast majority of voters cast their ballots in person. Mail-in ballot requests have declined significantly compared to previous election cycles.
While all populations and regions in the state saw increased voter turnout compared to 2018, there were increases in turnout among women, black voters and voters over the age of 50, according to a Washington Post analysis. The gains were largest in the Atlanta area, while many counties in the southwest state and along the southeast coast far surpassed their early 2018 vote numbers. Cobb County, a fast-growing Atlanta suburb, is traversing both trends, counting more than three times the number of ballots collected at the same time in 2018.
Early voting is underway in several other states, though most of them aren’t releasing as much data as Georgia.
More than 411,000 people have voted in Virginia so far, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, surpassing the total number of people who voted in early 2018. In North Carolina, more than 530,000 voters had cast their ballots by some means as of Monday, up from 590,000 at this point in 2018, despite the fact that early voting was offered for more days during this election.
In Texas, according to the state elections office, around 550,000 people voted. At this point in 2018, more than 695,000 people had voted in Texas, showing a sharp drop in engagement between the midterm elections.
In Georgia, about 17 percent of early voters had previously waited to vote on Election Day 2018, according to website GeorgiaVotes, while another 17 percent of this year’s early voters did not vote in the last midterm election. indicating high enthusiasm and early commitment. The numbers also underscore how voting behavior has changed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and new election laws in the state.
“It’s only been four years, but the state’s demographics have been changing quite rapidly,” said Bernard L. Fraga, a professor of political science at Emory University who studies electoral law and turnout patterns. As Georgia’s population, political environment and laws have changed, voting behavior has followed suit, Fraga said.
Georgian lawmakers last year enacted a sweeping electoral law that added requirements and restrictions on submitting a provisional or mail-in ballot, prompting many constituency groups to worry that these voting methods were too cumbersome for many voters and prone to legal challenges .
“Communities of color may feel they need to mobilize and mobilize for fear that something will happen to their vote,” Fraga said, while “some white, more Republican-leaning voters who would have turned up earlier may be waiting to vote on the election.” Tag because of these voter fraud narratives” espoused by former President Donald Trump and his allies.
But most Republican campaigns in the state also want their supporters to vote early. Georgia’s Republican leaders barred Trump from rallying in their state for fear that his false allegations of voter fraud would cause loyal GOP voters to lose faith in the election process and not vote.
The early engagement has excited many Democrats, who see it as a sign of successful mobilization.
“That has always been our intention — to create a big Week One — and then build on that,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, the campaign manager for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
Groh-Wargo said the campaign expected voters who vote in each election to do so in the first week, allowing groups to focus on reaching voters who traditionally vote on Election Day or skip voting altogether.
Republicans also say they believe the high vote count will benefit them. They have touted the turnout as a sign that the Democrats’ allegations of voter suppression in Georgia are unfounded.
“As Stacey Abrams continues to perpetuate the myth of voter suppression in Georgia, the 2022 general election has seen another record turnout so far,” said Tate Mitchell, press secretary for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is running for re-election.
Abrams has resisted such criticism. On Monday, she praised the “extraordinary turnout” and argued that “oppression is barriers. If these barriers are not fully successful, credit does not go to those who erected the barriers. Credit goes to those voters who have found a way to navigate, cross, and break down these barriers.”
In interviews with more than four dozen Georgians who cast their ballots at six polling stations in the Atlanta area last week, nearly all said they usually vote early, but this year were especially careful to cast their ballots as soon as possible.
Tonya Stevens said she had a “refreshing” experience voting early in Clarkston, Georgia. While she said she’s encountered long lines and mismanagement by poll workers in the past, she’s had a smooth voting experience. Stevens said she was excited to vote for Abrams “because she’s a hard worker and believes in the rights of all citizens.”
Joseph Dickinson said it was “extremely easy” to cast his ballot during the first week of early voting in Forsyth County, north of Atlanta. Dickinson, 33, said he’s found it harder to vote during the 2020 presidential election in neighboring Dawson County because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although he’s typically a libertarian voter, he said he voted Republican this year “because Georgia did pretty well. I feel good about it.”
Many counties in the Atlanta area have had little to no waits at most polling locations, according to the tracking sites and statements from the county elections and registration offices to The Post, in stark contrast to recent cycles when many voters waited several hours to cast their ballots. However, some polling and registration centers have seen wait times of up to an hour on some days over the past week. Georgians can vote early at any polling station in their district, but must vote in their respective constituency on election day.
“In Georgia, many think that the vote will be suppressed. And I personally think it’s quite the opposite,” said Nora Culver, a conservative and dental practice manager from Stone Mountain, Georgia, who voted early Friday. Culver, who supports the new electoral law, said: “One of the controversies was that you couldn’t accept food or drink in line. Well, who does that? Nobody wants food. I mean, only stupid things.”
Kayla Smith, a graduate student from Atlanta, said that while she voted by mail in previous elections because of her studies, she returned to her home district this year to make sure her vote was counted correctly. “I wanted to see my vote cast,” she said.
Smith, a recent Spelman College graduate, said that with several competitive races on the ballot, she was excited to support Democrats, particularly Abrams, also a Spelman graduate, and Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D), who is the neighboring attended Morehouse College.
“I see the power of voting,” Smith said. “We know what’s at stake this time. And I think that’s been a common theme in voting since 2020.”
Bronner reported from Washington.
