Just over 4 million people cast a vote in Georgia in 2016, with 2.4 million votes cast early. With early voting extending to Friday, more than 2.7 million people have already voted in the state. Many Black Georgia voters in particular do that under threat of voter suppression, knowing how serious it has been in recent elections.
“People are understanding that they are doing what they have to do, that the stakes feel extraordinarily high,” the New Georgia Project’s Nse Ufot told Politico.
Lines have abated a little in some of the areas that saw day-long waits in the first days of early voting. But the state had a warning during June’s disastrous primary voting when a new electronic voting system caused delays and lines were ridiculously long and shameful. Nonetheless, the earliest early voters dealt with the problems—in a state where wait times are seriously longer in majority Black neighborhoods.
“It is a form of voter suppression to massively underfund and understaff and [under]prepare for the turnout that we have. After what we saw in June no one should have been caught off guard that we were going to have a massive, massive early vote turnout,” said state Rep. Erick Allen, whose district had long wait times in the first week of early voting. “Either it’s voter suppression or complete incompetence on the planning.”
The question now is: Will Georgia once again see those shamefully long lines—usually in heavily Black areas—on Election Day, en route to historic turnout? Or will high early voting lead to a relatively uneventful Election Day?