Georgia recorded 188,667 in-person votes on 13 October, the first day of early voting, a midterm first-day record and more than 53,000 above 2022, according to the secretary of state's office as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta1. By 15 October nearly 365,000 people had voted in person and more than 16,000 absentee ballots had been accepted, out of more than 7.5m active registered voters. The opening day still fell short of the 2024 presidential start of more than 310,000.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican who runs the state's elections, said voters "are just energized" and expects turnout to challenge 2022's near 4m. Georgia sent its first overseas ballots four days inside the federal deadline of 45 days before election day. Early voting runs to 30 October.
The Senate race on the ballot is lopsided on money. Senator Jon Ossoff, the Democrat, raised $28.71m in the quarter and held $26.27m; his Republican opponent, Representative Mike Collins, raised $2.36m and held $1.14m23. That is about 12 to 1, in a race Cook Political Report already rates Likely Democrat.
