Georgia turnout numbers lag expectations

About 3.95 million Georgia voters cast a ballot in the 2022 Midterm Election, a backslide compared to four years ago.

Historical election records show about 3.94 million voters participated in Georgia’s 2018 Midterm Election, so the 2022 turnout number is arithmetically higher.

However, the state has added more than 300,000 residents and 500,000 registered voters over the past four years.

According to L2 voter data, there are more than 7 million registered voters in the Peach State, so the 2022 turnout rate was about 52.3%. In 2018, the turnout was about 53.9% — or 1.6 percentage points higher than this year.

Turnout in the 2020 General Election was 67.9%, however, turnout is generally higher in all states during presidential election years.

Georgia’s turnout numbers still beat the national average, which sits at 46.3% according to an analysis by The Washington Post. According to that analysis, turnout was down about 3 percentage points.

The Georgia numbers are seen as disappointing to Republican and Democratic get-out-the-vote operations, which were expecting a record level of participation based on the number of early and mail votes cast in the leadup to Election Day.

By the end of early voting, more than 2.5 million Georgians had cast a ballot early — 2.29 million in-person and 216,067 by absentee. That total was 30% higher than in 2018 and “within striking distance” of the early vote total for 2020 Presidential Election, when 2.69 million Georgians voted early.




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