DECATUR, Ga. — Early voting set a one-day record Monday in Georgia —and the record-breaking pace may continue until it ends Friday. This is the first runoff election with only one week or so of early voting. Previous ones have gone three times that long.
"I just flew back into town and got off the plane and came straight here," said Gail Ivey, who didn’t want to miss the chance to vote in the U.S. Senate runoff between Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock.
She is among those early voting in DeKalb County who knew there would be three additional early voting days, plus the runoff day Tuesday.
Many vote early to reduce the risk of unforeseen obstacles as Election Day itself approaches.
Over the last two days, 45,146 people cast ballots at 16 early voting sites in DeKalb County alone. If they vote at the same rate over the last three days of early voting, that will leave about 174,152 left to vote on runoff day next Tuesday.
They’ll vote in 176 precinct sites – which would project to have about 30 percent fewer voters each than the 16 early voting sites have had this week.
Most Georgia counties will have more voting precincts on Dec. 6 than they have had during early voting.
"This is longer than the general election," noted William Hill as he observed the line at the DeKalb Voter Registration site on Memorial Drive. Hill voted early even though he knows the line can get long.
Yet, Hill said it still makes sense to vote early.
"I wanted to make sure I got my vote in. I always vote early for that reason. Something could come up on voting day. And it’s just better to get your vote in as soon as possible," Hill said.