A police officer provides security as voters arrive to cast their votes during early voting (early voting) in Georgia for the US presidential election. EFE/EPA/Erik S. Menor
This Friday, participation rose to more than one million early voters, approximately 14% of registered voters in the Peach State.
More than a million votes have already been sent by mail in Georgia, just three days after early voting began in this southern US state that is key for the presidential elections on November 5.
On Tuesday alone, the first day of early voting, Georgia broke records with more than 300,000 votes cast, 123% higher than the last record, a figure that surpasses the previous mark of 136,000, recorded in the 2020 elections.
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This Friday, participation amounted to more than one million early voters, approximately 14% of registered voters in the so-called ‘Peach State’, with capital in Atlanta.
“We have done it! We crossed the 1,000,000 voter mark around 11,500 am. Incredible participation. So happy for the counties and voters. Let’s keep it up,” Gabriel Sterling, director of operations for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said on social media this Friday.
Georgia is a very close key state, according to recent polls, in the presidential race between the vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, and the former president (2017-2021) and Republican candidate, Donald Trump.
The former president won this state in 2016, and President Joe Biden narrowly turned it blue in 2020.
This election year, Trump leads Harris by just 2 percentage points in Georgia, according to the latest poll averages from the political information website The Hill and the election results site Decision Desk HQ.
There are about seven million registered voters in Georgia, meaning that one in seven eligible voters had cast their ballot by Friday morning.
With 16 votes in the Electoral College, Georgia is one of the seven states that could define the race for the White House, which is why both candidates have intensified their campaigns in this state.
A Georgia judge invalidated seven new electoral rules recently approved by the Electoral Board of this southern state on Wednesday, arguing that these are “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”
Among others, the judge invalidated the controversial manual recount rule after the polls closed on the night of the presidential elections on November 5.
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The State Election Board, controlled by three Republicans backed by former President Donald Trump, had approved several rules in recent months, mostly related to the processes that take place after votes are cast.
The flurry of last-minute changes to election rules over the past few months has led to multiple lawsuits, and now several judges are ruling on these issues.
