ATLANTA — The first day of early voting in Georgia produced record turnout, and with the first updates to the state data hub on Wednesday the Peach State has surpassed 330,000 votes in the 2024 election so far.
Early voting, which runs until Nov. 1, has been a highly popular option in Georgia in the last several election cycles, and that enthusiasm reached a record on the first day of the period on Tuesday.
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According to state data, so far there have been slightly more than 307,000 early in-person votes, with another nearly 23,000 absentee ballots accepted.
Smaller counties have had the highest turnout so far, according to the data hub. As of Wednesday morning, Towns County in north Georgia, Greene County south of the Athens area and Pulaski County south of the Warner Robins area were all over 8%. Several other counties outside of Georgia's urban centers -- Taliaferro, Schley, Ben Hill, Rabun, Quitman and Webster -- were also over 7%.
Partly that is a product of those counties having fewer people, and a lower hurdle to clear to reach high turnout figures -- Webster County, for instance, has recorded 122 votes so far.
Fulton County, the most populous in the state, was at about 5.50% turnout after the first day of early voting. That amounts to more than 40,000 votes. More than 21,500 have voted in DeKalb County, almost 22,000 have voted in Cobb County, more than 20,600 have voted in Gwinnett County and more than 9,000 have voted in Clayton County, among the core inner metro Atlanta counties.
Chatham County (Savannah) is over 9,100; Richmond County (Augusta), is over 4,800; Bibb County (Macon) is near 3,900; Muscogee County (Columbus) is near 6,300; Lowndes County (Valdosta) is near 2,900; and Dougherty County (Albany) is over 1,400.
The turnout in Lowndes County of 4% so far and 3.7% in Richmond County, both comparable to Gwinnett's 3.6%, comes after concerns about how Hurricane Helene -- which impacted those two areas severely -- would possibly affect voter turnout.