Early voting hits new Georgia record as Democrats aim to flip governor seat - Newsweek

In-person early voting has passed a recent record in Georgia with one day left, as 2,294,275 Georgians have voted as of Thursday afternoon, the Secretary of State said.

In 2022, a total of 2,289,951 people had voted early in-person, the secretary's office said. Overall, this year's numbers, including absentee-by-mail ballots, are on pace with overall 2022 turnout.

“Georgians continue to head to the polls in record numbers because they trust the system,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news release about the record on Thursday. “This record-breaking in-person early voting turnout wouldn’t be possible without our county elections officials who work every day to ensure our elections are free, fair, and fast.”

The record comes as high-profile Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris, have stumped in the state to back Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor and incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff.

President Donald Trump also rallied in the Peach State over the weekend to support Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson and U.S. Senate candidate Mike Collins.

The Secretary of State's office added that in addition to the number of early in-person votes, 108,251 absentee ballots have been accepted on Thursday as of 1:35 p.m. ET.

As of a 4:35 p.m. ET update, the state has accepted 2,359,330 early in-person votes, according to the state's election data hub interactive chart. So far, Fulton County has the highest number of ballots accepted with 285,482. Cobb and DeKalb Counties had the second-highest number of ballots accepted.

Robert Y. Shapiro, a professor of political science at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, told Newsweek on Thursday when asked about the early voting numbers, "This is more welcome news for the Democrats than Republicans in that the statistical models that have been run show a big edge in this vote is for Democratic candidates."

Shapiro continued: "This is evidently spurred by Democrats' greater enthusiasm to go out and vote against Trump's Republican party in holding the Republicans accountable for the poor performance of the Trump administration. This may be epitomized by the crowds and enthusiasm that former President Barack Obama has found and spurred on at the rallies he has been attending, as he has campaigned as well for the candidates for governor and the Senate there."

Meanwhile, D. Stephen Voss, political professor at the University of Kentucky, told Newsweek on Thursday, "High turnout used to be good for the Democrats. Now that the Trump movement has transformed the Republican electorate, the effect of high turnout depends on the area."

Voss continued: "It can be good for either side. To anticipate what effect high turnout is likely to have, experts need to drill down to a more granular level and figure out where the turnout is higher or lower. The only thing I can say confidently is that the high turnout in recent elections should not be taken as a welcome sign when it comes to the health of the political system. Voters by and large are not showing up to vote out of patriotic spirit. Voters are anxious or angry, and they're too often motivated by hostility to people on the other side of the partisan divide."

Early voting in the state continues on Friday and Election Day voting locations are open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. November 3.

Midterm elections are commonly viewed as a test of the political environment facing the party in power, and the president's party has historically lost seats during them. Trump won Georgia, a swing state, during the 2024 presidential election versus Harris by roughly 2 percent. Former President Joe Biden won the state in 2020 versus Trump by less than one percent.

Trump's overall approval rating and ranking on specific policy issues like the economy, immigration, jobs and the ongoing war in Iran have recently slipped as households across America are consistently flagging affordability concerns. The polling lows come as Trump has crisscrossed the country in the lead-up to November 3 to rally for potentially vulnerable GOP candidates, including previous stops in Georgia.

Democrats are keen on flipping the governor's mansion in the state as outgoing Republican Brian Kemp is term-limited. Both Obama and Harris have visited the state to throw their support behind Ossoff as well, as polling shows him leading.

On Wednesday, Obama rallied in Morrow, Georgia alongside Bottoms and Ossoff and took swipes at Trump on affordability and the ongoing war in Iran. “He is spending time supergluing gold medallions to the mantel in the Oval Office,” Obama said. “He is literally doing arts and crafts while we are fighting a war and trying to deal with out-of-control prices.”

Over the weekend, Trump held a rally in Perry, Georgia, and called out Obama's crowd size at a previous rally he held in Michigan.

“You know, I saw Barack Hussein Obama was in Michigan and the place was empty,” Trump said to the crowd. “And they were saying, ‘Oh, this is a large crowd coming, the people are trickling through’—they don't talk about my crowds, they never talk about them.”

In a post to Truth Social before the rally, the president said: "I will be doing a BIG RALLY today in the Great State of Georgia, in honor of Mike Collins, one of the hardest working and most respected Congressmen in D.C., and the phenomenal Rick Jackson, who will hopefully be Georgia’s next Governor. They are two incredible people! Their opponents are Radical Left Lowlifes and Lunatics who want to Take Away Your Guns, Open Your Borders, Allow Men To Play In Women’s Sports, and have Transgender nonsense for everyone. I Won Georgia in a Record Vote. See you later!!!"

Harris traveled to Macon on Thursday along with Ossoff, highlighting how soon the election is. "We have five days left. We have a moment now to turn pain into purpose," Harris said in part.

A Quantus Insights poll this month shows Bottoms with 46.6 percent of the vote compared to Jackson's 48.2 percent. For the U.S. Senate race, Ossoff has 51.8 percent versus Collins' 44.9 percent. The poll was conducted from October 15–17, 2026, among 755 likely voters and had a 7.6 percent margin of error.

A YouGov poll last month placed Jackson ahead with 45 percent compared to Bottoms' 44 percent. One percent said someone else, 1 percent said they would not vote and 9 percent were undecided. The poll also showed that Ossoff landed 51 percent to Collins' 41 percent, while 6 percent were undecided, 1 percent said someone else and 1 percent would not vote.

The poll surveyed 3,447 Georgia registered voters from September 15-18, 2026, and had a margin of error of 2.7 percent.

Prediction market site Kalshi shows that Ossoff is leading with over 95 percent on Thursday afternoon compared to Collins' 4.1 percent. For the governor's race, Bottoms has 61 percent on Kalshi compared to Jackson's 39 percent.

On Polymarket, Bottoms has 62 percent compared to Jackson's 39 percent. Ossoff has 96 percent compared to Collins' 3 percent.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon, Gray R. Thomas, Edward T. Cummins