The state of Georgia has reported a record turnout on the first day of early voting in the United States elections, revealing a high level of engagement in the key battleground state.
Hours after polls opened in the southern state on Tuesday, election officials reported that more than 251,000 voters had already cast their ballot in person.
One of several races on the ballot is the high-profile showdown for the White House: Vice President Kamala Harris — the Democratic presidential candidate — is set to face off against her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.
Tuesday’s voter tally in Georgia blew away the state’s previous record for the first day of in-person early voting, set in 2020. That year saw 133,000 residents show up to vote.
Historically, large turnouts for early voting have favored Democrats, although both parties have been urging voters to go to the polls early in states where it is allowed.
US presidential elections are ultimately determined through a weighted voting system called the Electoral College.
Each state has a certain number of Electoral College votes to award, and most grant those votes in a winner-takes-all system: Whichever candidate wins the state — no matter how small the margin — receives all the Electoral College votes.
Georgia, with its 16 Electoral College votes, is one of seven tightly-fought “swing states”, which could lean either Democrat or Republican this election cycle. Other battleground states include Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina.
Close races in those states could determine who becomes the next president.
Both Harris’s and Trump’s campaigns have set their sights on winning Georgia. Trump rallied in its capital, Atlanta, on Tuesday, and Harris is set to hold her own event in the city on Saturday.
In 2020, President Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win the state since 1992, a victory largely attributed to a huge uptick in Black voting. Black residents account for about one-third of Georgia’s population.
But with a margin of victory of just 11,779, the state also became a key lever in Trump’s campaign to overturn Biden’s victory.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Trump infamously pressured Georgia’s top election official to “find” more votes, and he actively spread misinformation that the ballot tally was marred by election fraud.
