Georgia Sees Record Turnout as Early Voting Kicks Off in Key US Battleground State

October 16 :
According to state officials, a record number of Georgians cast ballots when early voting began on October 14 for the upcoming presidential election between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump, which takes place on November 5. According to Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's second-in-command of elections, at least 252,000 people have voted at early voting locations as of 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT), which is about twice as many as voted on the first day of early voting in 2020 (136, 000). "Amazing turnout," he said on social media.

While campaigning in Atlanta, Trump voiced his support for Georgia's early voting."The votes are coming in, and they're coming in at a nice level for us," stated the governor. The practice of voting early, either in person or through mail, is gaining popularity among American citizens. The University of Florida's Election Lab reported that about one-seventh of the electorate cast ballots in advance of the 2020 election.

Nevertheless, some Republicans voiced their concerns about the substantial increase in mail voting that year, arguing that it constituted a security risk compared to in-person voting. In a failed attempt to reverse his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump invoked baseless allegations of mail ballot fraud.

Party officials are urging supporters to vote in advance, but some Republicans are adamant that voters should only be able to do so in person on Election Day. The number of Americans who have cast their ballots this year stands at 5.5 million, as reported by Election Lab. While many were avoiding long lines at the polls due to the COVID-19 outbreak, 27 million individuals had already cast ballots by this stage in the 2020 election.

Since then, Georgia has followed the lead of several other states in enforcing stricter mail-voting regulations, such as limiting the number of locations where voters can cast their ballots and requiring voters to present identification when requesting an absentee ballot. One of the seven states that are considered to be pivotal in determining the outcome of the election is Georgia. The law mandating that clerks manually count votes in the 2024 election to verify vote totals was temporarily suspended on Tuesday by a judge in Georgia.

Because the modification added further ambiguity to the process in the weeks leading up to Election Day, Judge Robert McBurney ruled on Tuesday that it was appropriate to halt the alteration.