Georgians turned out in record numbers for early voting on Monday, with nearly 123,000 in-person voters casting their ballots, according to state election officials.
“This blows away the previous midterm first-day record of approximately 72,000, and we have lots of voting to go today,” Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer at the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, tweeted Monday.
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Polls opened Monday at 7 a.m. across the Peach State for early voting, which ends on Friday, Nov. 4.
The big numbers put Georgia on pace to surpass the 3.9 million voters who cast ballots during the last midterm election season.
In-person voting is the most popular method of casting a ballot in the state. Early voting allows locations to be open for three weeks before Election Day, Nov. 8.
About 11,000 absentee ballots have already been returned out of the 218,000 requested, the state said.
Georgia has been at the epicenter of election controversy after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed he won the state during the 2020 election and blamed fraud for his loss. It’s an allegation that has been investigated multiple times and proven untrue. Trump also pressured the state’s governor and secretary of state to meddle in the election and “find” the votes he needed to beat Joe Biden. They did not comply.
This year, every seat in the House is up for grabs, as are 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships. In Georgia, a tight Senate race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker could be the deciding factor in which party controls Congress.
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Georgia voters will also decide whether they want Gov. Brian Kemp in office for another term or Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. If elected, Abrams would be the first black female governor in the United States.
