ATLANTA — More Georgia voters turned out to vote Tuesday, the first day of early voting, than any previous day in a general election in state history.
“This is the highest first day of early voting we’ve had in a presidential year,” said Robert Sinners, spokesman for the Georgia secretary of state, in an email to the Washington Examiner.
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Gabriel Sterling, Georgia secretary of state chief operating officer, touted in a post to social media that changes to the state’s voting system had, in fact, improved voting rather than made it more difficult.
“For those that claimed Georgia election laws were Jim Crow 2.0 and those that say democracy is dying…the voters of Georgia would like to have a word,” said Sterling in a post to X after polls closed Tuesday evening. “Over 300,000 votes cast today! That’s 123% higher than the old record for the 1st day. Great job counties & voters.”
For those that claimed Georgia election laws were Jim Crow 2.0 and those that say democracy is dying…the voters of Georgia would like to have a word. Over 300,000 votes cast today! That’s 123% higher than the old record for the 1st day. Great job counties & voters. pic.twitter.com/CkgZwSQAYM
— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) October 15, 2024
The feat is a major accomplishment for the state, as well as the Democratic and Republican parties, and could signal greater excitement among voters for both candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Hundreds of thousands of Georgians poured through the thousands of polling locations across its 159 counties, including in Fulton County, the epicenter of Trump’s claims that election fraud in the region cost him the state and the entire 2020 election.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office had anticipated earlier in the day that the numbers were off to a good start as more than 234,000 votes were filed between 7 a.m. local time, when polls opened, through roughly 3:30 p.m. local time.
Voters in Fulton County who turned out Tuesday to vote for Trump outside of the polling center at the Buckhead Library in north Atlanta told the Washington Examiner that they felt better about the county’s election process than four years ago.
Trump and Georgia: Why the bad blood
Fulton County is the most populated of Georgia’s 159 counties and accounts for 11% of the state’s voters, the large majority of whom are Democrats. In 2020, nearly 3-in-4 Fulton County voters backed President Joe Biden versus 1-in-4 who supported Trump, according to county election results.
Ultimately in Georgia, Biden beat Trump by a mere 11,779 votes out of almost 5 million votes cast in 2020. It was a huge victory for Democrats because the state had gone to Republican presidential candidates every election since 1996.
However, it was also reason, in Trump’s mind, to second-guess the results. Trump alleged that Democrats manipulated the election in Fulton County, in particular, in order to boost the state’s overall count for Biden.
In the four years since then, Republicans have waged a war to protect the election and voting process, while Democrats have accused their counterparts of overstepping their legal authority.
In Feburary 2021, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched an investigation into efforts by Republicans to mettle in the state’s election results.
A grand jury indicted Trump and 18 other named defendants in August 2023. Trump was arrested and booked in Fulton County, where his mugshot was taken. Trump was indicted on charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, statute.
The indictment accused Trump and others of plotting to create fake electors in support of Trump and plans to access voting machines. Trump was also accused of telling Raffensperger in a phone call to “find 11,780 votes” — enough votes to swing the state in his favor. Raffensperger refused and has remained in his position.
Despite pursuing charges against the Republicans, Willis has faced her own legal problems after being exposed for having a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor that she appointed to oversee the investigation.
The case against Trump is now on hold as the Georgia Court of Appeals decides whether to disqualify Willis.
Shoring up the 2024 elections process in Georgia
Republicans in elected and unelected positions across the state have tried to bolster election security measures, while Democrats have fought them at every move. Changes to the elections process are historically reserved for far out from an election because poll workers and election workers must be trained of changes to policy well in advance.
Although Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) backed the 2020 election results, to Trump’s dismay, he signed into law in 2021 what were described as elections security measures. The move infuriated Democrats — so much so that MLB opted not to hold its All-Star Game in Atlanta, as planned.
This past May, Kemp signed more changes into law, including the circumstances that a voter could be taken off eligibility rolls: death, evidence of voting or registering in another jurisdiction, or use of a nonresidential address. The bill also required counties to report absentee ballot counts with an hour of polls closing on Election Day.
ACLU of Georgia Executive Director Andrea Young called it a “step back for voters’ rights and voting access.”
In August, the Georgia State Election Board, comprised of five nonelected members, approved rules that required county election officials to create lists of voters who cast ballots, how they voted, and to comb through results to ensure the vote was not counted twice. The process must be completed before certifying the vote in mid-November.
Blowback from Democrats and Republicans
Raffensberger said in August that the state election board had run amok.
“Georgia law already has secure chain of custody protocols for handling ballots, and efforts to change these laws by unelected bureaucrats on the eve of the election introduces the opportunity for error, lost or stolen ballots, and fraud,” Raffensperger said.
The state board is intended to set election rules, investigate voter fraud allegations, and make recommendations to lawmakers.
The state will have a recount if the results for Harris and Trump come within half a percentage point.
Trump has praised the board, whose three of five members are closely aligned with him. Its chairman, Republican John Fervier, recently called out the three other Republicans and accused them this week of taking the law into their own hands.
“Our job is to clarify law, not create new law,” Fervier, vice president of risk management and security for Waffle House, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview published Monday. “This doesn’t need to be an activist board. This board needs to stay within its boundaries.”
The board voted in August to reopen an investigation into Fulton County’s 2020 presidential recount.
The board has been sued at several points, including by former Republican state Rep. Scot Turner and Chatham County election board member James Hall, on the basis that it overstepped its authority.
The Democratic Party has also sued and the Harris campaign has publicly supported the lawsuit.
Last month, the board voted to require a hand count of all ballots on election night, further delaying election results.
The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials pleaded with the state board in September to stop changing the rules so close to an election.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Tuesday that the Georgia election results must be certified by Nov. 12, one week after Election Day. The Georgia Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee have challenged two recent rule changes by the state board that they warned could delay the certification process.
Trump voters turn out on day one of early voting
Despite the infighting within the GOP and across the state, voting in Fulton County’s more than 40 polling sites got off to a fast start Tuesday.
Of several dozen voters on their way in and out of the Buckhead Library, just three identified as Trump voters and were willing to speak about their decision to vote for him this election.
Voters were not completely reassured that the county’s election would be on the up and up but said the process was in a far better place now than four years earlier.
“I do think it was kind of loosey goosey last time, and I think that they’ve tried to address some of that, so hopefully there will be closer scrutiny,” said Nikki Fortson, a retiree who has lived in Georgia all about four years of her life.
Glenn Hagan of Fulton County said he was not worried this time around because of actions that the state had taken to shore up the election.
“I don’t feel concerned now. I think there’s some things that the state has done to make sure that, or at least make things better than maybe they were before. Whether those things happened in the past, I’m not sure, but there’s enough talk about it that you got to think about it that,” said Hagan. “I’m not sure that there’s going to be those kind of issues. This time around, I’m confident that my vote’s going to count.”
Terence Michael Byrne said he came out on Tuesday because he had faith in the state’s voting system, which he described as superior to other states.
“It’s the way some of the states do it — ballot boxes that you can just drop your vote in. That’s crazy. This is much more secure,” said Byrne. “We have to show a valid state ID in order to vote. In a lot of states, you don’t.”
Trump’s mixed messaging on early voting
Trump descended on Atlanta on Tuesday evening for his first visit to the city in nearly two and a half months.
Trump’s messaging on early voting has contradicted itself. Although GOP ads circling nationwide and his own speeches contain calls to vote early rather than on Nov. 5, Trump has frequently called the early voting process into question.
At a Palm Beach, Florida, rally in July, Trump declared that “we should have one-day voting, paper ballots, voter ID and certification of citizenship.”
Trump himself voted early, in August. A day after, he told reporters in a press conference that early voting was “ridiculous.”
Last month, Trump told rallygoers in Indiana, Pennsylvania, that early voting was “stupid.”
Forston said she has always preferred to come out and vote early rather than wait in long lines. The lines this year, Fortson said, were longer than anticipated but not as bad as previous elections.
“I didn’t expect as many on the first day,” said Fortson.
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An NBC News poll conducted Oct. 4-8 revealed that far just 40% of voters who planned to cast a vote for Trump would do so early compared to 57% of voters for Harris.
Among voters who planned to go on Election Day, 58% were Trump voters versus 37% for Harris.
