Stacey Abrams pushes voter-suppression theme as Georgia breaks early voting records
The final numbers for early voting in Georgia were released Tuesday, and the record-breaking turnout for the week of August 30th, which was the last day of early voting in the state, could not have come at a better time for Democrats.
They needed it to win the governor’s race. The Republican candidate, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, did not come close to breaking the record early voting was holding throughout the state.
At the end of the day, with the voting being held the past week in most counties across the state, turnout was at a whopping 51.5 percent, breaking down to 35 percent in the majority of Georgia counties. The turnout percentage was above the record turnout for the same weekend a year ago, which was 46.2 percent.
Georgia’s early-voting trends were also encouraging for the Democrats, as they were the first party to break through with a historic voter turnout – 49.1 percent of the votes were cast by Democrats and Republican, with a margin of just over 1 percent. The numbers make Georgia the first state in the Deep South, and in the nation, to do so.
Voters were overwhelmingly white with a median age of 55.
This was the most racially diverse early voters to vote in a midterm for Georgia, with more than half of the voters voting at a polling place in one of the most diverse counties in the state, Fulton County.
Georgia already had the highest early voting turnout percentage in the country, and only in the last few weeks have the numbers climbed to such a great extent. The Democratic turnout was the highest ever for a midterm election in the state, as well as the most racially diverse early voting turnout for a midterm in the state.
But the turning of the tide for Democrats is being challenged by both Republicans and the Republicans. Reed’s campaign says the early voting numbers are no fluke.
“We had a great week of early voting. I’ve been telling everybody that we are the clear front-runner in Georgia,” Reed said. “We will win this election. I believe we have a good shot at winning this election.”
But Reed’s running mate, Jon Ossoff,