Georgia has accepted 1,467,774 early ballots through Thursday, Oct. 22, 5.4% more than at the same point in 2022 and 17.7% more on the same ten days of voting. On Thursday, county election offices received and accepted 134,547 ballots, 7.7% more than on the matching 2022 day.
A feature below examines The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s report that early voting is surging in the suburbs while rural Georgia lags. Counting the same ten days of both years, ballots are 11.8% ahead of 2022 in the counties Donald Trump carried in 2024, 22.9% ahead in the counties Kamala Harris carried and 7.2% ahead in rural counties.
Explore daily counts by county and voter group on the Georgia Early Voting Dashboard.
Georgia’s early vote
Georgia has accepted 1,467,774 early ballots, 74,861 more than the 1,392,913 at the same point in 2022 and 38.2% fewer than the 2,373,617 accepted at the same point in 2024, the same number of days before Election Day. 1,396,698 were cast in person, 67,743 came by mail and 3,333 were electronic.
What it means. In-person voting is behind the gain: in-person ballots are 11.6% ahead of 2022 by days until Election Day, against 5.4% for all ballots, and the total is 17.7% ahead over the ten days both years share. Mail ballots are coming back more slowly, 46.3% of those requested against 54.7% at the same point in 2022.
The running total counts one more 2022 voting day. Early voting began Monday, Oct. 17 in 2022 and Tuesday, Oct. 13 in 2026, so by the same number of days until Election Day, 2022 had accepted 150,593 ballots by the end of its first day, against 5,845 in 2026 before Oct. 13. Counting only the ten days both years share, Georgia is 17.7% ahead.
How to read this table: each row is a 2026 day and the 2022 day the same number of days before Election Day.
| Day (days until Election Day) | 2026 all ballots | 2026 in person | 2022 all ballots | 2022 in person | Day’s change | Running total change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue., Oct. 13 (21) | 196,845 | 190,395 | 146,775 | 134,872 | +34.1% | −31.8% |
| Wed., Oct. 14 (20) | 180,522 | 174,528 | 146,366 | 127,797 | +23.3% | −13.6% |
| Thu., Oct. 15 (19) | 171,561 | 164,283 | 138,383 | 123,017 | +24.0% | −4.7% |
| Fri., Oct. 16 (18) | 189,041 | 180,882 | 156,513 | 141,774 | +20.8% | +0.7% |
| Sat., Oct. 17 (17) | 95,363 | 91,415 | 86,837 | 80,309 | +9.8% | +1.7% |
| Sun., Oct. 18 (16) | 25,327 | 24,809 | 18,764 | 18,113 | +35.0% | +2.4% |
| Mon., Oct. 19 (15) | 166,306 | 155,260 | 154,160 | 133,499 | +7.9% | +3.2% |
| Tue., Oct. 20 (14) | 159,134 | 150,929 | 136,564 | 125,664 | +16.5% | +4.8% |
| Wed., Oct. 21 (13) | 143,283 | 135,760 | 133,065 | 119,663 | +7.7% | +5.1% |
| Thu., Oct. 22 (12) | 134,547 | 128,435 | 124,893 | 112,163 | +7.7% | +5.4% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Each 2026 day is compared with the 2022 day the same number of days before Election Day. The running total includes 2022’s extra first day, Mon., Oct. 17, 2022. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
Hispanic voters are 122.2% ahead of 2022 on the same days and Asian voters 74.5%, against 33.4% for Black voters and 7.4% for White voters. Registered Hispanic voters are up 41.0% since 2022 and registered Asian voters 28.6%. By age, voters 18 to 34 are 32.0% ahead and voters 65 and older 26.6%.
| Group | 2026 | 2022 | Change | Share of early voters, 2026 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race | |||||
| White voters | 779,080 | 725,510 | +7.4% | 53.3% | 58.4% |
| Black voters | 487,663 | 365,428 | +33.4% | 33.4% | 29.4% |
| Hispanic voters | 42,815 | 19,266 | +122.2% | 2.9% | 1.6% |
| Asian voters | 35,131 | 20,132 | +74.5% | 2.4% | 1.6% |
| Other or not recorded | 117,240 | 111,984 | +4.7% | 8.0% | 9.0% |
| Age | |||||
| 18 to 34 | 157,191 | 119,048 | +32.0% | 10.8% | 9.6% |
| 35 to 54 | 320,269 | 304,832 | +5.1% | 21.9% | 24.5% |
| 55 to 64 | 312,605 | 288,145 | +8.5% | 21.4% | 23.2% |
| 65 and older | 671,119 | 530,258 | +26.6% | 45.9% | 42.7% |
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Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, 2026 against Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022. Race and age as recorded in each year’s voter file. Ballots with no age on record, 745 in 2026 and 37 in 2022, are in the totals but not shown in the age rows. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
46.3% of the 147,514 mail ballots requested so far have been returned, against 54.7% of 254,523 at the same point in 2022 and 49.9% in 2024. The dashboard projects about 2.67 million early ballots by Election Day, with an 80% range of 2.46 million to 3.31 million, against 2,534,136 in 2022.
Watching next: Friday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 24, which match Oct. 28 and Oct. 29, 2022, and the end of early voting on Friday, Oct. 30.
Feature: the AJC on suburban and rural early voting
What the AJC reported. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that Georgia’s early voting surge “is fueled by a growing geographic divide,” with voters in metro Atlanta’s suburbs and other more populous areas well ahead of their 2022 pace “while much of rural Georgia lags behind.” In the 132 counties Donald Trump carried in 2024, it found early voting “essentially flat” compared with the same stage of 2022; in the 27 counties Kamala Harris carried, ballots are up 9%. It put Cobb and Gwinnett about 15% ahead and Richmond up 65%, and said early voting is down by double digits in Coffee, Colquitt and Laurens counties. It cautioned that early ballots show who has voted, not for whom.
What we found. Counting the same ten days of both years, early ballots are 11.8% ahead of 2022 in the Trump-won counties, 22.9% in the Harris-won counties and 7.2% in the 53 rural counties, against 20.0% in metro counties. By days until Election Day, the running total, Trump-won counties are 0.7% ahead and Harris-won counties 9.5%.
How we explored it. The dashboard’s running total compares each year by days until Election Day, which gives 2022 one more voting day, as described above. We repeated the comparison counting only the ten days both years share, grouped counties by their 2024 presidential result and by Census area type, and then looked inside the rural counties.
On the same ten days, the Trump-won counties have cast 652,072 ballots, 11.8% more than the 583,181 on the matching days of 2022, and the Harris-won counties 22.9% more.
How to read this table: counties are grouped by who carried them in 2024, then by the Census type of area. The change columns compare 2026 with 2022 on the running total and on the same ten days. Bars to the right mean ahead of 2022.
| Counties | Ballots, Oct. 13 to 22, 2026 | Ballots, same days of 2022 | Change, running total | Change, same days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counties Trump carried in 2024 (132) | 652,072 | 583,181 | +0.7% | +11.8% |
| Metro counties (55) | 452,556 | 394,116 | +3.7% | +14.8% |
| Small-city counties (31) | 111,225 | 107,105 | −7.1% | +3.8% |
| Rural counties (46) | 88,291 | 81,960 | −3.6% | +7.7% |
| Counties Harris carried in 2024 (27) | 809,857 | 659,139 | +9.5% | +22.9% |
| Metro counties (19) | 801,362 | 650,775 | +9.8% | +23.1% |
| Small-city counties (1) | 3,374 | 3,219 | −5.0% | +4.8% |
| Rural counties (7) | 5,121 | 5,145 | −12.5% | −0.5% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Running total: all ballots accepted through Oct. 22, compared with 2022 at the same number of days until Election Day, which includes 2022’s extra first day. Same days: Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, 2026 against Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022. The two shaded groups, Trump-won and Harris-won, do not overlap and together cover all 159 counties; the indented rows divide each of them by Census area type. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
Trump-won counties are not all rural. 55 of the 132 are in metro areas, including Cherokee and Forsyth, and they are 14.8% ahead on the same days. The next section looks at the rural counties on their own.
Rural Georgia in detail
Georgia’s 53 rural counties accepted 93,412 early ballots from Oct. 13 to Oct. 22, 7.2% more than the 87,105 on the same days of 2022. Metro counties are 20.0% ahead and small-city counties 3.9%. A rural county is one outside every metropolitan and small-city area as the Census Bureau defines them; About this analysis lists the groups.
What it means. Rural Georgia’s early vote is growing at less than half the metro rate over 2022, and its early electorate is older: voters 65 and older are 61.3% of rural early voters, up from 55.9%. The slowest growth among the groups shown is in the rural Black Belt counties, 2.8% ahead of 2022 against 7.9% in the other rural counties; the charts and tables below separate them.
Rural Black Belt counties’ lead over 2022 on the same days has narrowed from 12.8% to 2.8%, other rural counties’ from 14.3% to 7.9%
Scroll horizontally to see the full chart.
Accepted early ballots, all methods, from Tue., Oct. 13 through each day, compared with the same days of 2022 (Tue., Oct. 18 on). The six groups do not overlap; every county is in one of them, and the Black Belt counties are not included in the other rural counties. The 11 rural Black Belt counties cast 11,781 ballots on these days, so splits for them rest on small counts and small gaps between the two rural groups are not reliable. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
On the running total, rural counties are 4.1% behind 2022, 94,146 ballots against 98,182, because 2022 had 11,077 rural ballots by the end of Oct. 17 and 2026 had 734 before Oct. 13. The rural lead on the same days has fallen from 14.1% after the first day to 7.2%, and the metro lead from 38.7% to 20.0%. In the rural Black Belt counties it fell from 12.8% to 2.8%, and in the other rural counties from 14.3% to 7.9%.
How to read this table: shaded rows are groups of counties that do not overlap, and indented rows divide the shaded row above them. The running-total column counts everything accepted through Oct. 22, 2026 and the same number of days until Election Day in 2022; the same-days columns count Oct. 13 to Oct. 22, 2026 against Oct. 18 to Oct. 27, 2022.
| Area (counties) | Registered voters | Ballots, 2026 | Ballots, 2022 | Change, running total | Change, same days | Same days, in person | Share of registered voters who voted, 2026 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metro counties (74) | 6,917,253 | 1,258,194 | 1,170,504 | +7.5% | +20.0% | +27.8% | 18.2% | 17.7% |
| Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett (5) | 2,897,626 | 579,971 | 531,010 | +9.2% | +22.7% | +31.6% | 20.0% | 18.7% |
| Rest of the Atlanta metro area (24) | 1,872,758 | 342,152 | 317,585 | +7.7% | +18.7% | +24.4% | 18.3% | 18.4% |
| Other metro areas (45) | 2,146,869 | 336,071 | 321,909 | +4.4% | +16.8% | +24.9% | 15.7% | 15.7% |
| Small-city counties (32) | 765,861 | 115,434 | 124,227 | −7.1% | +3.9% | +8.7% | 15.1% | 17.5% |
| Rural counties (53) | 540,499 | 94,146 | 98,182 | −4.1% | +7.2% | +12.8% | 17.4% | 19.2% |
| Other rural counties (42) | 471,217 | 82,307 | 85,092 | −3.3% | +7.9% | +13.0% | 17.5% | 19.2% |
| Rural Black Belt counties (11) | 69,282 | 11,839 | 13,090 | −9.6% | +2.8% | +11.4% | 17.1% | 19.2% |
| Georgia (159) | 8,223,613 | 1,467,774 | 1,392,913 | +5.4% | +17.7% | +25.1% | 17.8% | 17.8% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Every county is in exactly one of the three shaded groups (metro, small-city, rural), and the three groups add up to Georgia’s 159 counties. Indented rows divide the shaded row above them and do not overlap: the metro counties are split into three, the rural counties into two. Running total: accepted early ballots through Thu., Oct. 22, 2026 and through the same number of days until Election Day in 2022, which includes one more voting day in 2022. Same days: Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, 2026 and Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022. Share of registered voters who voted: running-total ballots divided by registered voters, active and inactive, in each year’s voter file. The 11 rural Black Belt counties are a small group, 11,781 ballots on the same days. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
93.2% of the rural ballots accepted through Oct. 22 were cast in person, and on the same days rural in-person ballots are 12.8% ahead of 2022, against 27.8% in metro counties. The rural Black Belt counties are 11.4% ahead and the other rural counties 13.0%.
On the same days, in-person ballots are up 13.0% in other rural counties, 11.4% in rural Black Belt counties and 27.8% in metro counties
Scroll horizontally to see the full chart.
Accepted early ballots cast in person, Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, compared with Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022. The six groups do not overlap. The 11 rural Black Belt counties cast 11,781 ballots on these days, so splits for them rest on small counts and small gaps between the two rural groups are not reliable.
Rural voters 65 and older are 17.7% ahead of 2022 and cast 61.3% of rural early ballots, up from 55.9%. Rural voters 35 to 54 are 11.7% behind and voters 55 to 64 4.1% behind. In the rural Black Belt counties, voters 65 and older are 8.6% ahead, against 19.0% in the other rural counties; those counties cast only 11,781 ballots on the same days, so age and party splits for them rest on small counts.
Voters 65 and older are up 19.0% in other rural counties and 8.6% in rural Black Belt counties
Scroll horizontally to see the full chart.
Accepted early ballots, Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, compared with Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022. Age as recorded in each year’s voter file. The three groups do not overlap: the Black Belt counties are not included in the other rural counties, and the metro counties are a separate group. The 11 rural Black Belt counties cast 11,781 ballots on these days, so splits for them rest on small counts and small gaps between the two rural groups are not reliable. Black Belt ballots by age in 2026: 18 to 34 680, 35 to 54 1,862, 55 to 64 2,517, 65 and older 6,719. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
Rural voters whose latest party primary was Democratic are 21.6% ahead of 2022, and those whose latest was Republican 5.0% ahead. Democratic-primary voters are 27.5% of rural early voters, up from 24.2%. Rural Black voters are 15.6% ahead and rural White voters 4.9%. Democratic-primary voters are 10.0% ahead in the rural Black Belt counties and 26.5% ahead in the other rural counties; Republican-primary voters are 0.1% and 5.4% ahead.
How to read this table: each shaded block is a separate group of counties, and each row under it sorts that group’s early voters by the party primary they voted in most recently. Georgia has open primaries, so a last primary is not a measure of party loyalty.
| Group | 2026 | 2022 | Change | Share of early voters, 2026 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other rural counties | |||||
| Most recent primary was Democratic | 18,803 | 14,866 | +26.5% | 23.0% | 19.7% |
| Most recent primary was Republican | 53,667 | 50,936 | +5.4% | 65.7% | 67.3% |
| No primary record | 8,766 | 9,413 | −6.9% | 10.7% | 12.4% |
| Rural Black Belt counties | |||||
| Most recent primary was Democratic | 6,858 | 6,237 | +10.0% | 58.2% | 54.4% |
| Most recent primary was Republican | 4,013 | 4,007 | +0.1% | 34.1% | 35.0% |
| No primary record | 870 | 1,172 | −25.8% | 7.4% | 10.2% |
| Small-city counties | |||||
| Most recent primary was Democratic | 33,350 | 26,152 | +27.5% | 29.1% | 23.7% |
| Most recent primary was Republican | 65,690 | 67,516 | −2.7% | 57.3% | 61.2% |
| No primary record | 14,968 | 15,910 | −5.9% | 13.1% | 14.4% |
| Metro counties | |||||
| Most recent primary was Democratic | 636,481 | 449,002 | +41.8% | 50.8% | 43.0% |
| Most recent primary was Republican | 417,500 | 417,164 | +0.1% | 33.3% | 39.9% |
| No primary record | 189,259 | 169,710 | +11.5% | 15.1% | 16.2% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Accepted early ballots, Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, 2026 and Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022. Primaries through May 2026 for 2026 and through May 2022 for 2022, from state voter history records. The four shaded blocks are separate groups of counties that do not overlap, and the rural counties are divided into the other rural counties and the rural Black Belt counties. Voters who took only a nonpartisan ballot or whose record is unknown are in the totals but not shown. The 11 rural Black Belt counties cast only 11,781 ballots on these days, so their changes rest on small counts. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
35 of the 53 rural counties are ahead of 2022 on the same days, and the median is 4.6% ahead. The 7 rural counties Harris carried in 2024 are 0.5% behind, 5,121 ballots against 5,145, and the 46 that Trump carried are 7.7% ahead. On the map, outlined counties are the rural Black Belt counties.
35 of Georgia’s 53 rural counties are ahead of 2022
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Accepted early ballots, Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, compared with Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022. Hover over or tap a county for its count.
How to read this table: counties are ranked by the change in accepted early ballots on the same days. The first block shows the five largest gains and the second the five largest losses.
| County | Registered voters | Ballots, 2026 | Ballots, 2022 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largest gains | ||||
| Washington (Black Belt) | 14,116 | 3,076 | 2,346 | +31.1% |
| Lamar | 16,024 | 2,941 | 2,341 | +25.6% |
| Wilkes | 7,238 | 1,485 | 1,185 | +25.3% |
| Wheeler | 3,488 | 560 | 464 | +20.7% |
| Dodge | 12,562 | 2,042 | 1,721 | +18.7% |
| Largest losses | ||||
| Candler | 7,547 | 1,128 | 1,318 | −14.4% |
| Jefferson (Black Belt) | 11,778 | 1,526 | 1,800 | −15.2% |
| Treutlen | 4,587 | 675 | 801 | −15.7% |
| Miller | 4,037 | 534 | 645 | −17.2% |
| Seminole | 6,351 | 553 | 712 | −22.3% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
The 53 rural counties ranked by percentage change in accepted early ballots on the same days: Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, 2026 against Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022.
Rural Black Belt counties
In the 11 rural Black Belt counties, Democratic-primary voters are 58.2% of accepted early ballots, against 47.6% statewide and 23.0% in the other 42 rural counties, but 29.7% of registered voters whose latest primary was Democratic have voted early there since Oct. 13, against 38.9% statewide. Their early ballots are 2.8% ahead of 2022 on the same days, against 7.9% in the other rural counties, and 7 of the 11 voted for Harris in 2024.
What it means. The early electorate in these counties is strongly Democratic by primary history, but participation by those voters trails the state, and total ballots are growing more slowly than in other rural counties. Washington County, up 31.1%, is the exception. The data do not show why.
How to read this table: each row is a county, with its rank among Georgia’s 159 counties in parentheses. The last three rows compare the Black Belt counties, the other rural counties and the state.
| County | Black residents, 2020 (alone or in combination) | Early ballots, change from 2022 (same days) | Democratic-primary voters, share of early voters (rank among 159) | Early turnout of registered voters whose latest primary was Democratic (rank among 159) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taliaferro | 56.2% | 0.0% | 72.6% (3) | 27.6% (140) |
| Hancock | 70.2% | +5.7% | 67.1% (9) | 29.6% (127) |
| Jefferson | 52.2% | −15.2% | 64.4% (11) | 24.7% (151) |
| Macon | 60.4% | −7.6% | 61.6% (19) | 30.9% (119) |
| Calhoun | 65.1% | +4.2% | 59.9% (22) | 23.2% (154) |
| Randolph | 61.4% | −9.7% | 58.5% (23) | 28.8% (132) |
| Washington | 54.9% | +31.1% | 58.0% (24) | 34.3% (93) |
| Warren | 60.0% | +5.9% | 53.5% (28) | 33.4% (100) |
| Clay | 57.4% | +7.2% | 53.0% (29) | 35.6% (79) |
| Dooly | 50.4% | +0.2% | 47.8% (36) | 31.5% (115) |
| Early | 52.4% | −10.1% | 46.5% (37) | 26.2% (144) |
| The 11 rural Black Belt counties | +2.8% | 58.2% | 29.7% | |
| The other 42 rural counties | +7.9% | 23.0% | 35.9% | |
| Georgia (159) | +17.7% | 47.6% | 38.9% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Ballots accepted Tue., Oct. 13 to Thu., Oct. 22, 2026 and Tue., Oct. 18 to Thu., Oct. 27, 2022. Democratic-primary voters are early voters whose most recent party primary, through May 2026, was a Democratic one. Early turnout is those voters’ accepted ballots divided by all registered voters, active and inactive, whose latest primary was Democratic. Ranks run from 1, highest, to 159. Black residents are counted alone or in combination with another race, from the 2020 Census.
Taliaferro ranks 3rd of 159 counties for the Democratic-primary share of early voters, Hancock 9th and Jefferson 11th, but none of the 11 ranks higher than 79th on those voters’ early turnout.