Georgia voters smash early voting record
Georgia voters cast over 190,000 ballots on Tuesday, setting a record for the first day of early voting in a midterm election.
The total was an over 55,000-vote jump over the first day of early voting in Georgia’s 2022 midterm election, and nearly 120,000 more than the first day of early voting in 2018.
“This record-breaking turnout proves that voters have confidence in the integrity of our elections,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a statement. “It’s a testament to our strong election system overseen by 159 of the best county election officials in the country.”
An additional 10,300 absentee ballots were also accepted on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s record follows a similar pattern to the primary election in May, when Georgia voters broke the early voting turnout record. They cast more than 1 million ballots by the end of the three-week early voting window, far surpassing the previous record of 857,000 set in the 2022 primary election.
There are consequential races up and down the ballot this year, including for U.S. Senate, governor and other statewide offices, all 14 U.S. House seats, every seat in the state legislature, and many local seats.
Most of the candidates for federal and statewide office met in a series of debates hosted by the Atlanta Press Club on Monday and Tuesday.
Find your nearest Georgia early voting location, and dive deeper into Georgia’s early voting turnout numbers with the Secretary of State’s election data hub.
What’s on your ballot depends on where you live. To see which offices are up for a vote in your area, visit the Georgia Secretary of State’s My Voter Page to view your sample ballot.
Early voting for Georgia’s midterm election runs through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3.
Related Knowledge Center: Voting rights
As Republicans move to restrict voting rights, and Donald Trump appears to be preparing for another confrontation about election results, a wide range of organizations are pushing back.
Top guidance in the run-up to Election Day
- Ben Wikler, a political organizer who was chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from 2019 to 2025 says, “The very most powerful thing you can do as a volunteer in politics is to talk to your actual friends and family who are fence-sitters.”
- He quotes Abraham Lincoln, who wrote in a letter to a campaign committee in 1840: “Keep a constant watch on the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those in whom they have the most confidence.”
- The place to put our energy, Wikler says, is on the people whose votes will matter most because they live in a place with high-stakes, very close elections, as well as the people where we live.
- ACLU: Know your voting rights | How the ACLU is safeguarding the election
- Report intimidation, at the polls or elsewhere, immediately to the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español).