Georgia primaries for Kemp, Abrams produce record early turnout

It’s primary day in Georgia, and the Peach State has already seen record turnout in early voting, indicating there will be a massive increase in in-person turnout Tuesday. It comes in spite of Georgia’s controversial new voting law that critics said would suppress voting.

The increase in early participation more than tripled compared to the 2020 primary and went up 168 percent compared to 2018, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. The office credited short lines, smooth easy ballot access and confidence in ballot security.

“The incredible turnout we have seen demonstrates once and for all that Georgia’s Election Integrity Act struck a good balance between the guardrails of access and security,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger stated. 

That law, SB 202, was heavily criticized. The Department of Justice sued Georgia, and President Joe Biden called it “Jim Crow in the 21st century”. 

“Their mission is to convince us that our voices don’t matter, that our votes don’t matter,” Democratic candidate for governor Stacy Abrams said in March, criticizing Republicans who passed the bill.  

Abrams’ campaign manager denied there’s a positive correlation between SB 202 and participation. 

“Modern-day voter suppression and voter turnout are not correlated. Further, we’ve barely scratched the surface on the impacts of SB 202, yet already we know that mail ballot rejection rates are higher than they were in previous elections,” Campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo wrote in a memo.

Georgia Republicans had higher participation in early primary voting, with the count totaling 483,149 from the GOP and 368,949 for Democrats. The Republicans had a hotly contested gubernatorial race between incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and Donald Trump-backed David Perdue, as opposed to the Democratic primary in which Stacy Abrams ran unopposed. 

Other states also recorded increases in primary voter turnout. Nebraska recorded its highest primary turnout in 30 years. Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial primary saw 2,556,938 residents cast their ballot, a 58 percent increase from 2018. Ohio’s early primary voting had nearly identical turnout compared to 2018, as just 4,000 more people participated.