ATLANTA — After another record-setting day for early voting in Georgia's general election, some counties are taking steps to keep lines down.
After two full days, the Secretary of State's office says 241,746 people have voted in-person. Another 499,977 have voted by absentee ballot.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a press conference on Wednesday that those with lines "are adding equipment to deal with those issues."
He said those issues are good issues.
"So many Georgians are excited to get out - both in person and in absentee," he said.
Gwinnett County has already collected 35,377 ballots (includes in-person and absentee). Voters are waiting hours to cast their ballots.
County officials said they will continue to explore ways to cut down wait times for in-person early voting, but also said it is challenging while trying to maintain social distancing due to the pandemic.
They said they plan to add two new check-in tables and five additional ballot marking stations at the elections headquarters early voting location.
Meanwhile in Cobb County (69,771 total ballots cast so far), they said the nine locations open are more than they've ever had for early voting. They plan to add more machines at the West Cobb Regional Library, and are looking to add more at other locations.
They said they have two more locations previously scheduled to open on Monday.
Officials in Douglas County (9,370 total ballots cast so far) went as far as opening an additional location earlier than they planned. Along with the original location at the courthouse, the Woodie Fite Senior Center is now an early voting location.
In Fulton County, officials said they have no plans to increase the number of machines or early voting sites
Long lines are being seen across the country as momentum picks up for the 2020 presidential election.
The U.S. Elections Project reported a little more than 13 million votes had been cast as of 12:46 a.m. Wednesday. It was 10.5 million just 24 hours earlier -- an increase of roughly 24% in one day.
The record total continues to be well above the pace of early voting in the 2016 election with three weeks to go before the final votes are cast. At about this same point four years ago, only about 1.4 million people had voted, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
Election officials and many advocacy groups have encouraged people to vote early due to the coronavirus pandemic.
