InsiderAdvantage: Greater Georgia looks at who is casting ballots during early voting

Cindy Morley

Monday, October 31st, 2022

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Georgians are voting in record numbers so far during early voting for the 2022 General Election. A comparison by Greater Georgia shows that the number of people voting early during the first week increased 74 percent compared with the same first-week voting period in the 2018 midterm general election. Total early voting has increased by 90 percent, and, as of this past Sunday, over 830,000 Georgians have cast their ballots by absentee voting or through early in-person voting.

Greater Georgia, the state’s conservative voter registration and mobilization group, launched a final voter registration push during the last week prior to early voting, and they have seen their efforts pay off.

According to their analysis, 13,388 voters who have voted so far this year are first-time voters. And, of the 339,000 conservative voters who voted in the November 2020 general election but did not vote in the January 2021 runoff election, 27,568 have so far voted in the 2022 midterm general election.

“From the very first day of early voting, Georgians have come out in force to have a say in this year’s midterm election – shattering turnout records with a level of enthusiasm we usually see only in presidential election years,” said Kelly Loeffler, Greater Georgia Chairwoman and former U.S. Senator. “Turnout has increased 74 percent; every single demographic group has increased participation rates; over 13,000 voters have cast their ballots for the first time. Every piece of data so far has confirmed what we’ve known on the ground for months – not only that SB 202 has been a major positive for our state, but that the promise of strong conservative leadership is driving one of the most historic elections of our lifetimes.”

Of the 832,832 voters who have cast their ballots so far in this year’s general election, 752,225 were in-person early voters and 80,607 cast their vote by absentee ballots. Drawing the same time-period in 2018, only 479,310 voters had cast their ballots in total.

Greater Georgia found that 247,531 Georgians have requested an absentee ballot in this election, representing a 19 percent increase over 2018 – when 207,816 voters requested an absentee ballot. So far, 80,607 voters, or 33 percent, have already returned their absentee ballots.

According to the information released by Greater Georgia, a greater share of men are voting this year compared to 2018, though women continue to be the majority of voters. So far, 46 percent of voters are male and 54 percent are female, compared to 2018 when 45 percent of voters were male and 55 percent were female.

Compared to the 2018 election, the participation rate of men increased by 74 percent and the participation rate of women increased by 73 percent during the first week.

A greater share of non-white voters are voting this year compared to 2018, though White voters continue to be the majority of voters so far in early voting. So far, 60 percent of voters are White, 34 percent are African American, 2 percent are Asian, and 1.8 percent are Hispanic. Comparably, in 2018, 65 percent of voters were White, 31 percent were African American, 2 percent were Asian, and 1.6 percent were Hispanic.

Compared to 2018, the participation rate of White voters has increased by 62 percent, African American by 95 percent, Asian by 84 percent, and Hispanic by 89 percent, according to Greater Georgia.