By Julia Mueller
(Source: The Hill)
More than 1 million votes have been cast in the critical battleground state of Georgia just days after early voting opened in the state.
Georgia shattered records with more than 300,000 ballots cast on the first day of early voting this Tuesday, which top Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling reported was 123 percent higher than the last record.
On Friday, turnout crossed 1 million early and absentee voters, or roughly 14 percent of active voters in the Peach State.
“We have done it! We crossed the 1,000,000 voter mark at around 11:50am. Amazing turnout! So happy for the counties and the voters! Let’s keep it going,” said Sterling, the chief operating officer of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s (R) office, in a post on the social platform X after the milestone was hit.
Georgia is a critical state in this year’s highly competitive presidential race. Former President Trump won the state in 2016, and President Biden flipped it blue by narrow margins in 2020.
This year, Trump leads Vice President Harris by roughly 2 points in Georgia, according to the latest polling averages from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ.
Hurricane Helene hit Georgia, North Carolina and other parts of the Southeast earlier this month, threatening disruptions to the voting process in the vital swing states and complications for the White House candidates. But the Georgia secretary of state’s office has stressed officials are prepared to deal with the storm fallout, and early voting kicked off in the Peach State on schedule.
Last week, a federal judge declined efforts by the NAACP and other advocacy groups asked the state to extend voter registration in Georgia, which closed earlier this month, in light of the hurricane.
