Voters came out strong on the first day of voting seen here and didn’t let up. Four million people had already cast a ballot before the polls even opened on Election Day. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder (October file photo)
More than half of active Georgia voters have already cast a ballot, but many more will have their say today on the final day of voting in the Nov. 5 election. As one of seven swing states at play, the nation’s eyes are on the Peach State to see whether Georgians will hand the state’s 16 electoral college votes to Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump. But voters are also electing state legislative representatives and local officials and settling tax-related ballot questions. Follow along here for updates throughout the day and night.
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It’s here! Georgians head to polls as Election Day arrives at last in a battleground that could decide who wins the White House
Tuesday’s closely watched Election Day begins before sunrise, with Georgia poll workers opening doors at 7 a.m. for voters expected to play an important role in settling the presidential election contest between former President Donald Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as dozens of other local, state and federal elections.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger estimated Monday that more than 1 million Georgians could vote in person Tuesday at one of the state’s 2,200 polling locations. In comparison, about 800,000 people voted during a pandemic on Election Day in the 2020 general election headlined by the presidential contest between Trump, then the Republican incumbent, and Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Raffensperger said that state and local officials have worked hard over the past several years to improve Georgia’s elections, including through the updating of election rules to enhance transparency and confidence in the electoral process. He promised to keep fighting to tamp down disinformation distributed by hostile actors to cast doubt on Georgia’s election system.
“What we do know is that Gov. Kemp, myself, our General Assembly, and thousands of election workers have worked every day to defend every legal vote,” Raffensperger said. “In the next few days, you may see some extra drama from fringe activists.”
Raffensperger characterized Georgia elections as “easy to vote and hard to cheat,” a common mantra among state leaders responsible for election administration.
“Our systems are secure and our people are ready,” he said. “Your local election officials will work around the clock tomorrow to ensure everything runs smoothly.”
The first round of reported results on election night will come from a state early voting record four million voters who cast ballots in-person at polling places and via absentee ballots prior to Tuesday. Changes to Georgia’s election law mean that the results of absentee ballots turned in by Monday will be released to the public within an hour after the polls close Tuesday.
Georgia was at the center of the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the election results in 2020, even after three vote tallies confirmed Biden’s narrow win and attempts to challenge the results in court were unsuccessful.
This year, Harris-Walz and state and national Democratic party organizations have been preparing in case Trump and his allies file lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the election results in several battleground states.
A Harris official told reporters last week that her campaign expects Trump to declare victory on election night, even if the result is still uncertain.
Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said the majority of the statewide unofficial results should be available to the public within a couple of hours of the polls closing Tuesday.
He warned, however, that thousands of ballots are still pending, which could decide a tight presidential race or many down ballot contests around the state.
Sterling said it would be easier to declare the winner with a difference of 50,000 votes between the presidential candidates, but a repeat of the tight 2020 election would take longer. Biden defeated Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes in Georgia in 2020.
“This is a tight election. I want to make sure that all the Harris supporters and all the Trump supporters who can’t possibly imagine the person that they hate winning, it might happen,” Sterling said.
Counties with larger numbers of mail-in ballots will benefit from the early start of processing absentee ballots. Voters in Georgia have until 7 p.m. to return their absentee ballots to county election workers.
State law allows county officials to begin tabulating mail ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day, which means that a large number of absentee ballots and mail-in early in-person votes will be included in the initial votes reported on election night.
More than 344,000 absentee ballots had been returned statewide as of Monday afternoon.
Among the final votes to be counted will be a number of ballots cast by Georgians living overseas and deployed military service members, whose mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and arrive by Friday in order to be counted.
“The other two buckets of votes that can be there from Tuesday to Friday are the provisional votes that can be verified, and then also absentee ballots that can be cured,” Sterling said last week.
Election officials encourage voters to check their specific precinct information on the state’s “My Voter Page” website before heading to the polls Tuesday.