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Georgia shatters turnout records ahead of final day of early voting

People leave after voting in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs, Ga., on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, the first day of early in-person voting in Georgia. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy) (Jeff Amy, Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

GEORGIA – Friday is the last day of early voting in Georgia.

Officials said the state has already shattered early voting numbers with over half of active voters casting their ballots.

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Just days away from the election, attempts have been made to undermine the integrity of the process in the key battleground state.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office said it became aware of a video alleging to show a Haitian migrant with multiple Georgia IDs claiming to have voted multiple times.

The state called the video “targeted disinformation,” claiming it is likely foreign interference, and asked social media companies to take videos like it down.

Secretary Brad Raffensperger released a statement Thursday night saying:

“As Americans we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine our faith in our institutions - or each other,” he said.

Chief Operating Officer Gabe Sterling added that users need to think before they repost.

“It’s at a higher level now. And I know people talk about AI and everything. You don’t have to have AI. You have to have one random person make one random claim, and it gets retweeted by an influencer or put on TikTok, and it just kind of rolls out there,” Sterling said. “One of the things I tell people all the time is, if you have a partisan itch, that’s a piece of social media information scratches. Take it with a grain of salt, try to find other sources of information to make sure it’s real, before you start spreading it yourself.”

Through 17 days of early voting in the Peach State, voter turnout is already over 50%. Towns County leads the way at almost 70% having voted.

So far over 3.5 million ballots have been cast in Georgia.

RELATED | Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger celebrates milestone as Georgians break 3 million mark

State officials assured voters that they are prepared for the spotlight to be on them.

“Well, we have done more to invest in list maintenance and than any other state in the country. We arguably have the cleanest voting list in America. We just did a citizenship audit to show that we don’t have any noncitizens on the roll. We found some that have been registered before we were Real ID state way back in 2012 most of which haven’t engaged in any kind of voting activity whatsoever, but we went ahead and canceled those 20 out of 8.2 million. And what we are seeing is we use voter ID for every form of voting, early in person, mail, ballot and Election Day voting. So, we have a very secure system. We know it’s safe, we know it’s secure, and we know it’s easy to vote,” Sterling said.

The Secretary of State’s office said it expects an increase in turnout today.

For those not able to make it, they will have to wait for Election Day on Tuesday.


About the Author
Chris Will headshot

Chris Will has joined the News4JAX team as a weekend morning reporter, after graduating from the University of Florida in spring 2024. During his time in Gainesville, he covered a wide range of stories across the Sunshine State. His coverage of Hurricane Ian in southwest Florida earned a National Edward R. Murrow Award.

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