Early voting for the United States presidential election began in Georgia on Tuesday, and a record turnout was recorded, suggesting uncertainty in this so-called swing state, where neither candidate has a decisive advantage.
As CNN reports, Georgia is facing the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, which killed more than 220 people in the US a few weeks ago, as well as controversial changes in election administration that have already sparked a series of lawsuits.
“More than 328,000 ballots have been cast,” said Gabriel Sterling from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office on the social network X, formerly Twitter:
“So, with a record first day of early voting and absentee ballots accepted, we have a total of over 328,000 votes so far,” he noted.
“The previous first-day record was 136,000 votes in 2020,” Sterling added.
This swing state is one of the most closely watched in this election, as former President Donald Trump is trying to reclaim it after losing to President Joe Biden by a narrow margin four years ago.
This led to unsuccessful attempts by Trump and his associates to overturn the results.
Those efforts have left a legacy in this election as new changes have been approved in how the state conducts elections. Republican members of the State Election Board made those decisions, leading to legal challenges from Democrats and others, many of which have yet to be resolved, despite early voting already underway.
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Despite the high turnout on the first day, the voting process was smooth, Atlanta voters told CNN:
“Last time I voted, I voted in the city and the lines were out the door. They had maybe three people working. So people started leaving before voting. They thought: This is taking too long. I can’t sit here and wait, I have to get back to work. But now it was easy,” said Corinne Canada.
Parts of Georgia are still recovering from Hurricane Idalia, which hit the US last month and caused havoc in several other southeastern states. Georgia election officials say absentee ballots were mailed out as planned and there were no problems due to the hurricane.
“We’ve had a little over 250,000 voters request absentee ballots so far. We may see that number go up to 300,000 in the next week. We think about five or six percent of all voters will vote that way,” said Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Experts say new laws that have tightened rules for absentee voting, as well as fewer drop boxes, could lead to a decrease in these votes.
While in the 2020 election many ballot boxes were available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, this year there will be fewer and they will be located in election offices or early voting sites with hours that coincide with most people’s working hours.
Raffensperger said security measures have been put in place to ensure secure elections and that officials will be randomly auditing voting equipment.
“We pull some of the equipment, do a random audit on election day, bring it to the main office and verify that it’s recording votes correctly, that it hasn’t been hacked,” said Raffensperger.
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Source: Telegraf
Photo: AP