Georgia voters motivated by Harris-Trump contest flock to polls in record numbers

The first day of early voting in Georgia crushed the previous record for in-person turnout, with more than 300,000 people casting a ballot Tuesday.

The previous record was 136,000 votes on the first day of advanced voting in 2020, according to Georgia Secretary of State officials.

In polling places across vote-rich metro Atlanta, backers of both political parties showed up in droves to back their favorite candidates on a busy first day of the end of the 2024 election.

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, who is also chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said late Monday afternoon that she was heartened by the turnout.

“We have shocked the nation in Georgia before with historic voter turnout in 2020 and now we are even surpassing that,” the Atlanta Democrat said. “I am confident that voters are choosing their freedom when they vote, but I also understand that there’s a lot more days of early voting to go, and so we have to keep this momentum going.”

The first day of early voting coincided with a visit from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who did an all-women town hall in Cumming that will air Wednesday on Fox News and a late-night rally in Cobb County.

“I tell you what, I’m hearing very good things now. It hasn’t been going on too long, but we’re seeing numbers. They’re saying, ‘Wow, those are big numbers,'” Trump told rally-goers Tuesday.

Cherokee County

But there were also signs of energy among right-leaning voters.

When the polls at Rose Creek Public Library in Woodstock opened up at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, more than 75 people were already in a line stretching around the building and looping up in a closed-off section of the parking lot.

Voters line up at the Rose Creek Public Library in Woodstock for the first day of early voting. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

The library parking lot quickly filled up beyond capacity, and some parked their vehicles along the curb. Still, the crowd grew as people were dropped off out front or walked over from nearby lots.

Some of the voters were bundled up against the chilly weather, but the mood was generally jolly, with some clapping and cheering when poll workers officially opened the doors.

Sharon Krecl of Canton was one of the first to walk out the doors, along with a friend who did not want her name published.

Most of Tuesday’s early risers said they are constant early voters because it is more convenient for them than waiting until Election Day.

“We’ve got other things to do,” Krecl said. “We don’t want to be standing in line. We figure it’s going to be a very busy election year.”

Woodstock retiree James Tanner said he wanted to bank his vote for Donald Trump in case he buys the proverbial farm before Nov. 5.

“Well I wanted to get it over with. I might die before Election Day, I wanted to make sure I get counted,” he said with a laugh.

Tanner stepped out of the library wearing a cap naming him as a Purple Heart recipient.

Trump voter James Tanner of Woodstock gives the thumbs up after casting his ballot. Tanner was one of the first Georgians to vote on Tuesday. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

“I’m like Trump, I took a bullet for this country,” he said.

Tanner was far from the sole Trump voter who lined up early in Woodstock Tuesday. More than two-thirds of the county supported the former president against Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.

The local Democratic Party is hoping to make the district, sandwiched between the more liberal north Atlanta suburbs and conservative rural north Georgia, a little bluer, announcing visits from big names like Sen. Jon Ossoff and former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, but most of Tuesday’s early voters said they want Trump back in office.

“He’s going to save America,” Tanner said. “America’s going down the hole, quick. Democrats, I don’t know what they got on their mind, but it ain’t America. We need somebody to take America back.”

“I just think he’s strong,” said Gail Kane of Woodstock. “I think he’s strong for our country, for somebody to go through what he’s going through and still keep running to be able to take care of our country, I mean, you can’t ask for better than that.”

Most of the voters listed border security, crime and the economy as their top concerns.

“He’s a businessman, so he’s dealt with other countries in his business and everything,” said Woodstock retiree George McCutchen. “So he knows what’s going on. It’s about running the country like a business. That’s the biggest thing.”

Some of the voters also expressed concern that the election might not be completely free or fair.

“We’re hoping, God willing,” Kane said. “I think the last election was a little bit, maybe, off. We’ll never know 100% for sure.”

“I think it’s more fair, too, when Election Day is Election Day,” she added. “Not election week or election couple days. Get it all done like we used to back in the old days. One day, count your votes the next day, whatever.”

Trump continues to allege malfeasance in the 2020 election, but his efforts to overturn the results have failed in multiple courts. In the past, the former president has expressed skepticism with early and absentee voting, implying that those votes are easier to falsify, but he has since moderated that stance and called on supporters to vote any way they can.

In a Tuesday morning press conference at the state Capitol, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sought to quash worries about election security, touting measures including maintaining accurate voter lists by cooperating with other states, verifying that only U.S. citizens are able to vote and a 100% audit of all races.

“We have the cleanest, most accurate voter list in the entire country,” he said.

Atlanta

Trump and his supporters are hoping places like Cherokee continue to see big crowds at polling places, while Harris voters hope to see strong turnout in Atlanta and some of its more left-leaning suburbs.

Poll workers in Atlanta reported steady crowds Tuesday, including at the Joan P. Garner Library at Ponce De Leon, where Pamela Matthews, a retired government contractor, cast her ballot for Harris.

Matthews said she thinks Harris’ policies would be better for the middle class economically, and that she prefers the vice president’s position on abortion. But she said she worries Harris’ connection with her boss, President Joe Biden, could harm her chances in Georgia.

“It’s hard for her because of the split between her and Biden, and things that she probably would do different from Biden, she’s really not talking a lot about it because she’s still serving underneath him,” she said. “So that’s a disadvantage for her to me. But hopefully, I mean, it’s so close now that she’s going to have to separate herself from him and really talk about the things that she would do differently.”

Matthews said she hopes to see Harris separate herself from Biden on the economy, and especially the war in Gaza.

“So many people are losing their lives, so I hope that she will take a stance against that and speak up because she would probably do, I think, things a little bit different, but she really doesn’t say much because of the position that she’s still in,” she added.

Democrats’ chances at retaining the White House appeared to leap when Biden dropped out and Harris became the nominee, but Leah Foster of DeKalb County said Biden’s forced departure left a bad taste in her mouth.

Leah Foster cast her ballot for Kamala Harris Tuesday. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Foster voted in DeKalb County Tuesday morning after a wait of just under an hour.

While she said she’s not happy about how she feels Biden was treated, she appreciates him setting up his vice president to be the nominee and was pleased to vote for her.

“I’m voting for someone who doesn’t have the baggage,” she said. “And I’m not talking about the 34 convictions. I’m not talking about the alleged rape. I’m not talking about any of that. I’m talking about the inability to put America first, the inability to put the country first.”

Foster said she thinks Trump is too self-centered to serve another term and would harm the nation’s reputation abroad.

“I’m not voting for the lesser of two evils. I hear people say that, but I don’t view her as evil,” she said. “I view her as this is her time. This is America’s time. This is America’s time to say once again on the world stage who we are. Biden has brought back a lot of credibility to America on the world stage, and I just do not think that Trump would continue that. I think that we would fall back with him at the helm in that regard.”

Frankie Brown, right, and his friend and neighbor Ella Stephens, voted together in Atlanta Tuesday. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Frankie Brown said he voted for a full Democratic ticket. He said on election night he’ll be watching the House and Senate results as closely as the presidential race.

“Republicans aren’t capable and aren’t ready to do anything but just flex their muscle and stuff, but I think we can get something done with the Democratic party,” he said. “We’ve got plans, we’ve got voting power, all we’ve got to do is make sure we get the Senate, that’s going to be a little worse, but I’m positive.”

Polls suggest a slim Republican majority could be the most likely outcome in the Senate, while control of the House is more difficult to predict. Brown said he hopes a Democratic trifecta will allow the party to take action in his most important issues, abortion and gun control.

Britany Hellyar-Luna, who voted in East Point in south Fulton County, showed up on the first day of early voting to avoid the lines. Also, she said there was no point waiting when she already knew how she planned to vote.

“As a same-sex couple, we want to protect our rights too,” she said as she left East Point First Mallalieu United Methodist Church, which is an early voting location. “That was not a hard thing to vote Kamala versus Trump.”

Octavis Smith voted early in south Fulton County on the first day he could, mostly because he wanted to get it over with. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder

Octavis Smith voted at the same East Point location on the first day but he said he mostly voted early just to get it over with so people would stop hassling him about the election.

Disillusioned by the negative ads and what he sees as self-serving politicians, the Democrat-leaning voter said he was not particularly enthusiastic about any candidate but ultimately backed Harris because he said he wants to see what she would do with the opportunity to potentially become the country’s first woman president.

“I really do want to see what she is going to do. I mean, I already saw what Trump is going to do,” he said.