Georgia has seen a record number of Black voters cast ballots during the early voting period. Nearly 873,000 Black Georgians voted before Election Day, according to data from the Secretary of State’s Office.
During a press conference on the South Steps of the Georgia State Capitol on Wednesday morning, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Georgia Secretary of State’s Office Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling addressed the media about the upcoming elections. During that press conference, The Atlanta Voice asked Sterling if he knew the 872,510 votes was a record.
Sterling said he didn’t have the numbers in front of him, but it was safe to assume that it has been a record-setting performance by Black voters.
Raffensperger, both he and Sterling are Republicans, said this is going to be a “tight election” but “it’s going to be a close election in all battleground states” so Georgia voters should expect a long Super Tuesday night.
“Georgia voters are smashing through every voting record,” he said.”
The early voting period ends on Friday, November 1, and with a 45% statewide turnout, there has been a record number of votes cast in Georgia, a crucial battleground state for United States Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz; and former United States President Donald Trump and his running mate Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.
There have been 3.2 million votes cast thus far, according to election data from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. In comparison to the first 16 days of early voting in 2016 (1.3 million voters) and 2020 (2.1 million voters), this year’s efforts dwarf any other records that were previously set.
As to be expected, the majority of the votes come from metro Atlanta where the majority of the state’s voters reside, but there have also been record-breaking turnouts in smaller and mid-sized counties up and down the state.
| County | Early Vote Totals |
| Fulton County | 341,786 |
| Cobb County | 239,194 |
| DeKalb County | 220,752 |
| Gwinnett County | 240,672 |
| Clayton County | 64,728 |
Chatham County, where Savannah is the largest and most populated city, saw 73,994 residents vote early, while Cherokee County (94,991), Henry County (81,593), Forsyth (90,309), Coweta (51,525), Richmond (40,837), and Paulding (52,231) also saw record turnouts during the early voting period, according to data from the Secretary of State’s Office.
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