With Election Day over, Peach State saw record voter turnout

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - With Election Day over, it’s safe to say that Georgia saw some of the highest numbers in voter turnout, especially during the early voting period.

From the race between Stacey Abrams and newly re-elected Gov. Brian Kemp to the now runoff battle between Incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, this year’s midterm elections held some of the most important races to watch.

These races pushed many in Georgia to get out and vote.

Georgia may have been a lightning rod for controversy in the 2020 election, but there are no such storylines this year. Even with a potential record turnout for a mid-term election, there were few long lines on voting day and few issues with voting machines and equipment.

In Coffee County, where equipment and staffers had to be replaced after a major breach in the last election, it was a complete 180 in this election.

In an unofficial report from the Dougherty County Elections Office, 26,769 out of 56,414 registered voters cast their ballot in this year’s election. That’s 47.45% of all registered voters. The ballot items that saw the most activity were the U.S. Senate race and the race for Georgia governor.

Over 39 million Americans, cast their ballot before Election Day nationwide. In Georgia, over 2 million voters cast their ballot early.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger said these numbers mimic those from a presidential election and county election offices handled their voters well.

“The turnout belies the statement that people don’t trust elections. Obviously, they do because they came out in record numbers for a midterm election. We had about two-thirds of the turnout during advanced voting and about one-third on Election Day, which is a definite switch. I think it’s due to word of mouth,” Deb Cox, Lowndes County Elections Office supervisor, said.

Across the state, there are less than 20,000 ballots left uncounted for this year’s midterms. Over 9,000 voted early, 2,700 used an absentee ballot, and over 5,000 used a provisional ballot.

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