The numbers are in from Tuesday, and it was another record day for turnout. About 330,000 people voted early either in-person or by mail. The Atlanta metro counties of Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett accounted for nearly 100,000 of those votes. And currently, these four counties account for just under 39% of all votes cast, although they account for just 33% of Georgia’s population overall. In the general election from a few weeks ago, these four counties accounted for almost exactly 33% of all votes cast, so as of now, in this runoff election, they are running a little ahead of their proportion of Georgia’s overall population — most likely as a result of having a “head start” on Saturday and Sunday.
Demographically, the numbers changed a bit after Tuesday’s votes came in. Of those who have voted so far in the runoff, the electorate is about 52% white and 35% African American. Among only those who voted yesterday, those figures were 57% white and 30% African American. Before anyone becomes alarmed, that’s not unusual at all. In every early voting period I’ve followed in Georgia, there was an early spike in voting among traditional Democratic constituencies which sort of tapered off a bit by the end. By the time the early voting period ended during the general, for instance, the makeup of the electorate was 57% white and 29% African American for the entire early voting period — although it had started off something like 53% white and 36% African American in the first couple days of early voting.
So far, nearly 30,000 people who didn’t cast votes in the general have already voted in the runoff. Of those, 62% were non white and 37% were under the age of 30.
Today, it looks like turnout will be a bit less than Tuesday’s massive haul. It’s raining in several counties and that always dampens turnout, to coin a phrase. Gabriel Sterling, the Chief Operating Officer for the Secretary of State of Georgia, said on Twitter that today’s turnout was running behind yesterday’s by approximately 15%. The weather appears pretty nice in Atlanta though and based on what I’m looking at online right now, today’s turnout in the all important counties of Fulton and Dekalb is about as strong as yesterday’s.
The total amount of votes cast in the runoff election now stands at 833,472. 55.6% of all voters so far have been female, which is a slightly higher percentage than it was at the same point during the general (it was just under 55% then).
For the rest of the week, I will continue to offer daily updates. And I will offer full comparisons between the runoff and the general elections on Saturday morning once we have all the numbers.
Here is a link to the data if anyone is interested: georgiavotes.com