Georgia was one of the first states to be called for President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday, and the Georgia Secretary of State reported Wednesday that Peach State voters cast a record 5,287,085 million ballots recorded at press time, breaking a the last turnout record set during the 2020 election.
In total, Georgia saw more than 4.1 million voters cast their ballot before Election Day, though just over 3.75 million Georgians chose to cast their early votes in person, compared to under 350,000 who voted with an absentee ballot.
The state achieved a 72.7 percent voter turnout rate, with nearly three quarters of its roughly 7.3 million registered voters casting a ballot on Tuesday or earlier.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (pictured here), in a press release published Saturday, called the current election “the most successful Early Voting period in Georgia history because voters trust the process.”
The secretary’s office explained the 4.1 million voters who cast ballots early exceeds the previous record of 2.7 million set during the last presidential election, when many voted early by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In total, the number of Georgians who voted early in 2024 was more than twice the 1.9 million who voted early during the 2018 midterm elections, and almost 2 million more than voted early during the 2022 midterms.
He additionally revealed Georgia’s turnout rate exceeded 50 percent during just the early voting period, and additionally revealed his office identified four people who allegedly tried to cast multiple ballots during Georgia’s Early Voting period.
Raffensperger, before national media outlets called the state for Trump on Tuesday, delivered public remarks declaring Trump achieved an “insurmountable” lead in the state, effectively announcing the defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris within the Peach State.
The record turnout comes as Trump once again outperformed pollsters’ estimates in Georgia, winning the state with 50.75 percent of the vote compared to 48.51 percent that went to Harris. On average, pollsters projected Trump would win 0.8 percent of the vote, while his actual margin was 2.24 percent.
President Joe Biden was narrowly declared the winner of Georgia’s votes in the Electoral College after the 2020 election, with election officials determining he won by only 11,000 votes.
By contrast, Trump secured a 117,000-vote majority in Georgia, with Peach State voters contributing to the president-elect’s commanding victories in both the Electoral College and popular vote, vote victory, which Trump’s surrogates say gives him a mandate to lead the country.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
