Early voting in Georgia sees record turnout

In the particularly hotly contested US state of Georgia on Tuesday early voting for the presidential election started on November 5th – and immediately recorded record participation. After the polling stations opened in the morning, 251,899 votes had already been cast by 4 p.m. (local time, 10 p.m. CEST), as one of those responsible, Gabriel Sterling, announced. This is a record number for the first day.

Early voting has also begun in other US states, either by postal vote or by appearing in person at polling stations that are already open. According to a count by the University of Florida More than five million US voters have already taken advantage of this option.

The polls agree extremely close result of the presidential election in which Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump compete against each other. At the same time, the election is seen as a directional decision for the future of US democracy.

The US electoral system stipulates that the president is elected indirectly by 538 electors who are sent by the individual states into an electoral college. Whoever has at least 270 of these voters wins the election.

Because of this peculiarity, the presidential election is expected decided in just a few states in which the election outcome is particularly close. Georgia, with its 16 electors, is one of the seven particularly hotly contested states – the so-called swing states.

Trump narrowly lost to current incumbent Joe Biden in the 2020 election in Georgia. The Republican then claimed the election results were forged. Trump was indicted in Georgia and at the federal level for attempting to overturn the election results.

In Georgia there is still a dispute over the rules for counting votes. On the one hand, the regulation decided by the pro-republican election commission is being challenged, which states that the ballot papers are not only sent by the machines, but then also have to be counted by hand. It is also not yet clear whether election officials in individual districts have the authority to challenge the counting results or not if there are concerns about the counting results.