7 min read
Major Takeaways
- Georgia set a midterm record with 188667 ballots cast on the first day.
- Black voters cast 34.7 percent of all early ballots through Friday morning.
- That is about 40000 more Black early voters than at this point in 2022.
- The governor race and a Senate race could both turn on this turnout.
Georgia early voting opened with a statement nobody in politics can ignore.
Black voters are not waiting for Election Day to make it.
They are already at the polls in record numbers across the state.
The first day of early voting drew 188667 people statewide.
That total crushed the old midterm record by more than 53000 votes.
Georgia counted 134962 first day voters in the 2022 midterm.
It counted just 70849 on the first day back in 2018.
This year the line formed early and it kept growing.
About 166000 more people voted in person on the second day.
More than 10000 absentee ballots had also been accepted by then.
Georgia Early Voting Numbers Tell The Story
The share of the vote matters as much as the raw total.
Black voters cast more than 36 percent of first day ballots.
That share ran more than six points higher than in 2024.
By Friday morning the cumulative numbers told the same story.
Georgia voters had cast 537347 early ballots in total.
Black voters accounted for 186659 of those ballots.
That works out to 34.7 percent of the entire early vote.
Black Georgians make up about 31 percent of registered voters.
They also make up about a third of the state population.
So Black voters are voting above their share of registration.
The count sits about 40000 above the Black early vote in 2022.
That gap came at the same point in the election calendar.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger praised the opening surge.
He said the turnout proves voters have confidence in Georgia elections.
He credited the 159 county election offices that run the system.
Confidence is only part of what these numbers show.
Organization is the other part of the story in Georgia.
Churches and civic groups and campaigns spent months building this moment.
Our earlier coverage showed Black organizers turning early voting into a power push across the country.
Georgia is where that push is producing the clearest numbers.
Two Races Ride On Black Turnout
Start with the race for governor and the history attached to it.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms carries the Democratic banner.
Health care executive Rick Jackson carries the Republican banner.
Bottoms would become the first Black governor in Georgia history.
Jackson is a billionaire who has funded much of his own campaign.
One forecast gives Bottoms a 57 percent chance of winning the seat.
Yet Jackson leads the polling average by about two points.
That tension is exactly why the early numbers matter so much.
A polling race this close becomes a turnout race very fast.
We recently profiled the record field of Black governor candidates running this year.
Bottoms stands closest to making that history in a major state.
The Senate race at the top of the ballot carries national weight.
Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff is defending his seat this fall.
Republican Representative Mike Collins is trying to take it from him.
President Donald Trump carried Georgia by about two points.
Still Ossoff has led in every poll taken in this race.
One election forecaster gives him an 88 percent chance of winning.
His average lead sits at 8.8 points in that same forecast.
The two men met Tuesday night in their final scheduled debate.
The Atlanta Press Club hosted the debate in Atlanta.
Collins acknowledged high diesel prices during the exchange.
He said those prices will continue to come down.
Ossoff blamed the Iran war and tariffs for fuel and grocery costs.
Those costs are not abstract for Black households in Georgia.
Gas averaged 4.33 dollars a gallon across the nation on Thursday.
That price stood 1.28 dollars higher than one year ago.
A Georgia fuel tax suspension has kept local prices lower for now.
Every voter standing in those early lines carries a budget story.
The Warning Hidden In The 2022 Numbers
There is one caution buried inside the celebration this week.
The early electorate so far skews older than the full electorate.
Voters age 60 and older have cast about six in ten ballots.
Voters under age 30 have cast only about five percent.
History also warns against reading too much into a hot start.
In 2022 the Black share of the early vote started near 36 percent.
By the end of that election it had fallen to 29.4 percent.
An early lead can fade when later voters look different.
Campaigns that relax after week one can lose the whole advantage.
That is why organizers keep pushing new voters toward the polls.
Younger voters are the largest untapped bloc in this surge.
If they join the lines next week the numbers could hold.
If they wait for Election Day the share could slip again.
The next two weeks will answer that question in plain data.
Saturday Brings The Next Test
Georgia offers Saturday voting today and again on October 24.
Some counties will also open their doors for Sunday voting.
Today Atlanta hosts a Party at the Polls celebration.
Black Voters Matter helped organize the family friendly event.
It features a voter village and food trucks and a live DJ.
Cliff Albright of Black Voters Matter is among the rally speakers.
Marc Morial of the National Urban League is also speaking.
The event belongs to a national day of action today.
Vote early events are planned in all 50 states this Saturday.
The goal is simple and stated plainly by the organizers.
Every eligible voter needs a plan and a ballot cast early.
Early voting in Georgia runs through October 30 this year.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot is October 23.
Election Day itself arrives on Tuesday November 3.
Voters this year also face one new step at check in.
Poll workers now handwrite each voter name on a numbered list.
That step follows the electronic check in at the table.
Voters on day one said the process moved smoothly anyway.
The Fight Over The Machines Continues
One more fight is running underneath the turnout celebration.
The Republican controlled State Election Board made a bold request.
It asked the Justice Department to declare Georgia voting machines illegal.
The Justice Department does not hold the power to do that.
The request still signals how contested this election remains.
Georgia voters have heard machine claims for six straight years.
They are answering those claims the strongest way available.
They are showing up early and in numbers too large to wave away.
Nationwide fights over voter lists are reaching the courts as well.
Our coverage of the federal voter list lawsuit in California shows that wider battle.
Black voters in Georgia cannot control every court fight this fall.
They can control whether their ballots are already banked.
A ballot cast early cannot be lost to a long Election Day line.
It cannot be lost to a broken machine or a bad work shift.
That simple math explains the strategy behind this record surge.
Georgia has more than 7.5 million active voters on the rolls.
Plenty of room remains for this turnout story to grow.
The question now is whether Black Georgia holds its early pace.
If it does the governor mansion and the Senate could both follow.
The first week says the voters understand exactly what is at stake.
