Georgia ended early voting on Friday past 2022’s entire early-vote total. Friday was the busiest day of this year’s early voting, with 307,051 ballots accepted. Georgia’s early vote reached 2,823,255 ballots, 12.5% more than at the same point in 2022.
Of Georgia’s 8,223,613 registered voters, 5,403,467 had no accepted early ballot. Most of them, 72.2%, have no Democratic or Republican primary on their record.
We estimate that those voters lean Democratic by about the same or a smaller margin than early voters. Our low and central estimates put Democratic preference among them at 51.2% to 54.8%. For early voters, the estimate is 54.0% to 55.1%. Remaining Democratic primary voters have voted less often than remaining Republican primary voters, are younger, are more often Black voters and more often live in the five-county Metro Atlanta Core.
Explore daily counts by county and voter group on the Georgia Early Voting Dashboard.
Georgia Passed 2022’s Total on the Last Day
Friday was the busiest day of this year’s early voting. Georgia accepted 307,051 ballots, 26.6% more than on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, the last early-voting day that year. Friday also topped the last early-voting day of 2024, a presidential election, by 1,299 ballots.
Georgia’s early vote is now 286,940 ballots past 2022’s final total. That 2022 total of 2,536,315 counts every ballot accepted through Election Day.
Georgia Passed 2022’s Final Early-Vote Total on Friday
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Accepted early ballots, all methods. 2022’s final total counts every ballot accepted through Election Day, including 27,674 ballots accepted after its early voting ended, nearly all by mail. Our reports before Oct. 28 used 2,534,136 for that total; a fuller 2022 ballot file later added mail ballots.
In-person ballots accounted for all of the gain while mail ballots fell. In-person ballots rose 18.1% from the same point in 2022. Mail ballots fell 47.5%, to 113,297.
Early ballots equal 34.3% of Georgia’s 8,223,613 registered voters, active and inactive. That rate divides all accepted early ballots by all registered voters.
Friday Ran 26.6% Ahead of 2022’s Last Early-Voting Day
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Accepted early ballots, all methods, on each weekday of early voting against the day with the same number of days until Election Day in 2022. Early voting began Oct. 13, 2026, 21 days before Election Day, and Oct. 17, 2022, 22 days before, so 2026’s first day is set against 2022’s second day.
The Metro Atlanta Core1 ran further ahead of 2022 on Friday than the rest of Georgia. The core ran 27.8% ahead of 2022’s last early-voting day. The rest of Georgia ran 25.8% ahead.
1 The Metro Atlanta Core counties are Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett, part of the 29-county Atlanta metropolitan area as defined by the Census Bureau’s July 2023 delineation. The rest of Georgia is the other 154 counties. Back to text
Who Voted Early
The early vote grew faster than Georgia’s voter rolls. Early ballots rose 12.5% from the same point in 2022. Active voters on the rolls rose 8.5%, and all registered voters, active and inactive, rose 4.9%.
A larger share of active voters cast an early ballot than in 2022. Active voters with an early ballot equal 37.4% of active voters, up from 35.9%.
| 2022 | 2026 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early ballots, same point in the cycle | 2,508,641 | 2,823,255 | +12.5% |
| Active voters on the rolls | 6,935,798 | 7,524,479 | +8.5% |
| All registered voters, active and inactive | 7,837,186 | 8,223,613 | +4.9% |
| Active voters with an early ballot, as a share of active voters | 35.9% | 37.4% | +1.5 points |
| Early ballots as a share of all registered voters | 32.0% | 34.3% | +2.3 points |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Accepted early ballots through Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, and through the matching day of 2022, Friday, Nov. 4. The 2026 rolls are the voter file of Oct. 8, 2026. The 2022 rolls come from the state voter list that includes voting through the Dec. 6, 2022 runoff. Its newest registrations and record changes are dated Oct. 18, 2022, about three weeks before Election Day, so it shows the rolls as they stood in mid-October and may miss later changes.
Black voters cast a larger share of Georgia’s early vote than in 2022, and White voters a smaller one. Black voters cast 32.4% of early ballots, up from 29.2%. White voters cast 52.5%, down from 57.4%.
Hispanic voters nearly doubled their share. They cast 3.7% of early ballots, up from 1.9%. That is 57,155 more ballots than in 2022.
Voters 18 to 34 gained more share than any other age group. They cast 16.0% of early ballots, up from 13.5%. Voters 65 and older also gained, while voters 35 to 64 lost ground.
Black Voters, Hispanic Voters and Voters 18 to 34 Cast Larger Shares of the Early Vote Than in 2022
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Each bar is a group’s share of all accepted early ballots through Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, minus its share through the matching day of 2022. Orange bars are groups whose share fell. Race and age are as recorded on each year’s voter file; ballots with no race or age on file are left out of the shares.
Friday’s voters were the youngest of any weekday. Voters 18 to 34 cast 27.7% of Friday’s ballots. They added 23,552 ballots over 2022’s last early-voting day, the most of any day.
Black voters and Hispanic voters also added more ballots over 2022 on Friday than on any other day. Black voters added 28,817 and Hispanic voters 9,706. White voters cast 48.2% of Friday’s ballots, their smallest share of any weekday.
Rows show each group’s early ballots and its share of all early ballots in 2026 and at the same point in 2022.
| Group | Ballots, 2026 | Ballots, same point in 2022 | Share, 2026 | Share, 2022 | Change in share (points) | Ballots added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By race | ||||||
| White voters | 1,481,971 | 1,440,200 | 52.5% | 57.4% | −4.9 | +41,771 |
| Black voters | 914,972 | 732,765 | 32.4% | 29.2% | +3.2 | +182,207 |
| Hispanic voters | 104,732 | 47,577 | 3.7% | 1.9% | +1.8 | +57,155 |
| Asian voters | 81,874 | 47,931 | 2.9% | 1.9% | +1.0 | +33,943 |
| Voters of other races | 236,840 | 240,094 | 8.4% | 9.6% | −1.2 | −3,254 |
| By age | ||||||
| Voters 18 to 34 | 450,909 | 339,552 | 16.0% | 13.5% | +2.5 | +111,357 |
| Voters 35 to 54 | 757,093 | 731,340 | 26.8% | 29.2% | −2.3 | +25,753 |
| Voters 55 to 64 | 586,644 | 561,213 | 20.8% | 22.4% | −1.6 | +25,431 |
| Voters 65 and older | 1,025,742 | 876,431 | 36.4% | 34.9% | +1.4 | +149,311 |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Accepted early ballots through Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, and the matching day of 2022. Within each half of the table the groups do not overlap; every voter is in one race group and one age group. Voters of other races include voters whose race is listed as unknown. Shares leave out ballots with no race or age on file.
The Democratic and Republican Early Vote
Voters whose last primary was Democratic cast the largest share of early ballots. They cast 41.9%, up from 37.5% at the same point in 2022. Voters whose last primary was Republican cast 35.2%, down from 40.1%.
Democratic primary voters cast 188,076 more early ballots than Republican primary voters. In 2022, Republican primary voters cast 67,057 more. Georgia has no party registration, and a voter’s last primary is not a vote in this election.
Friday’s voters were less tied to either party’s primary. Voters with no Democratic or Republican primary on record cast 38.8% of Friday’s ballots, against 22.9% across early voting. Democratic primary voters led Republican primary voters by 3.4 points on Friday.
| Voters’ last primary | Ballots, 2026 | Share of all early ballots, 2026 | Same point in 2022 | Share of Friday’s ballots | Share on 2022’s last early-voting day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | 1,182,350 | 41.9% | 37.5% | 32.3% | 31.3% |
| Republican | 994,274 | 35.2% | 40.1% | 28.9% | 30.9% |
| No Democratic or Republican primary on record | 646,631 | 22.9% | 22.4% | 38.8% | 37.8% |
| All early ballots | 2,823,255 | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
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Accepted early ballots through Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, and the matching day of 2022, grouped by the party of each voter’s last primary on the voter file. Friday is set against Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, the last day of early voting that year.
Early voters with no primary on record are younger and more often Hispanic voters than in 2022. Voters 18 to 34 cast 33.9% of their early ballots, up from 26.8%. Hispanic voters cast 8.3%, up from 3.5%.
| Group | Share of these voters’ early ballots, 2026 | Same point in 2022 | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| By race | |||
| White voters | 41.6% | 51.3% | −9.7 |
| Black voters | 32.7% | 28.8% | +3.8 |
| Hispanic voters | 8.3% | 3.5% | +4.8 |
| Asian voters | 6.4% | 4.0% | +2.4 |
| Voters of other races | 11.0% | 12.3% | −1.3 |
| By age | |||
| Voters 18 to 34 | 33.9% | 26.8% | +7.1 |
| Voters 35 to 54 | 32.5% | 36.4% | −3.9 |
| Voters 55 to 64 | 16.6% | 19.2% | −2.6 |
| Voters 65 and older | 17.0% | 17.6% | −0.6 |
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Shares of the 646,631 early ballots in 2026, and 562,346 at the same point in 2022, cast by voters whose voter-file record shows no Democratic or Republican primary. Within each half of the table the groups do not overlap. Shares leave out ballots with no race or age on file.
Where the Early Vote Grew
Gwinnett gained more of Georgia’s early vote than any other county. It cast 8.4% of the state’s early ballots, up from 7.5% in 2022. Cobb gained 0.32 points and Henry 0.15.
Most counties hold about the same share of Georgia’s early vote as in 2022. In 142 of 159 counties, the share changed by less than 0.05 points. Forsyth lost the most, 0.11 points, followed by Lowndes and Fulton.
On Friday, 19 more counties passed their own 2022 early-vote count at the same point, leaving 43 behind. Those 43 counties are short 6,371 ballots together. Toombs, Ware and Rabun trail by the most ballots, and none is in the Metro Atlanta Core.
| County | Ballots, 2026 | Ballots, same point in 2022 | Share of Georgia, 2026 | Share of Georgia, 2022 | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largest gains in share | |||||
| Gwinnett | 237,124 | 189,181 | 8.40% | 7.54% | +0.86 |
| Cobb | 236,085 | 201,665 | 8.36% | 8.04% | +0.32 |
| Henry | 81,088 | 68,320 | 2.87% | 2.72% | +0.15 |
| Cherokee | 86,302 | 73,440 | 3.06% | 2.93% | +0.13 |
| Newton | 31,259 | 25,021 | 1.11% | 1.00% | +0.11 |
| Largest losses in share | |||||
| Forsyth | 74,893 | 69,312 | 2.65% | 2.76% | −0.11 |
| Lowndes | 23,441 | 22,750 | 0.83% | 0.91% | −0.08 |
| Fulton | 339,198 | 303,303 | 12.01% | 12.09% | −0.08 |
| Carroll | 24,584 | 23,354 | 0.87% | 0.93% | −0.06 |
| Oconee | 16,393 | 15,957 | 0.58% | 0.64% | −0.06 |
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Accepted early ballots through Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, and the matching day of 2022, as a share of Georgia’s total. The five counties that gained the most share and the five that lost the most are shown. In all, 142 counties changed by less than 0.05 points.
Who Is Left to Vote
5,403,467 registered voters had no accepted early ballot through Friday. That is 65.7% of Georgia’s 8,223,613 registered voters, active and inactive.
Most of them have no Democratic or Republican primary on their record. These 3,900,674 voters make up 72.2% of the voters left. Among all registered voters, the share is 55.3%.
Among the voters who have not voted early, Republican primary voters outnumber Democratic primary voters. Of the voters with no accepted early ballot, 896,873 last voted in a Republican primary and 605,920 in a Democratic primary. That is a Republican edge of 290,953 voters.
The Republican edge among remaining primary voters (290,953 voters) is larger than the Democratic edge already banked among early voters (188,076 ballots). Voters with no primary on record, most of the voters left, are not part of this count.
Most Voters Who Have Not Voted Early Have No Primary on Record
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Registered voters, active and inactive, on the voter file of Oct. 8, 2026. Voters with no accepted early ballot had no ballot accepted through Friday, Oct. 30. Last primary is the most recent Democratic or Republican primary on each voter’s record; Georgia voters do not register by party.
Source: Georgia Secretary of State and Civic Forge Solutions, Oct. 31, 2026.
We estimate that the remaining voters with no primary on record lean Democratic. Each of them gets the lean of primary voters of the same race, gender and age. That puts Democratic preference among them at 55.0% to 60.1%. They are younger and less often White voters than the remaining primary voters.
Taken together, our estimate puts Democratic preference among all remaining voters at 51.2% to 54.8%. For early voters, the estimate is 54.0% to 55.1%. The two ranges overlap, and the range for remaining voters reaches lower.
The estimate rests on assumptions, not vote counts. It maps past primary voting and demographics to preference, and the true value could fall outside the range in either direction. The low end is about 1 point above an even split, and counting only primaries from the last six years puts it at 50.8%.
By Our Estimate, Voters Who Have Not Voted Early Lean Democratic by About the Same or a Smaller Margin Than Early Voters
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Each bar runs from our low estimate to our central estimate of the share of the group who prefer Democratic candidates. It is an estimate of preference built from assumptions, not a measurement of votes; the true value could fall outside the range in either direction, and it does not say how many of these voters will vote. Early voters are those found on the voter file. Voters holding an unreturned ballot are among the voters with no accepted early ballot.
Source: Georgia Secretary of State and Civic Forge Solutions, Oct. 31, 2026.
Remaining Democratic Primary Voters Have Voted Less Often
Democratic primary voters who have not voted early have thinner voting records than Republican primary voters who have not. About 54% of remaining Democratic primary voters voted in a general election in both 2022 and 2024. About 71% of remaining Republican primary voters did. Voters who registered after 2022 could not have voted that year, and remaining Democratic primary voters are younger.
Remaining Democratic primary voters were also about twice as likely to have voted in neither election. That was true of about 18% of them, against about 9% of remaining Republican primary voters.
Voters with no primary on record have the thinnest voting records of all. About 62% of these remaining voters voted in neither year, and about 11% voted in both.
Remaining Republican Primary Voters Have the Steadiest Voting Records; Voters With No Primary on Record, the Thinnest
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Shares of each group of voters with no accepted early ballot through Friday, Oct. 30, by whether the voter’s history shows a ballot in an election listed as a general election in 2022 and in 2024. That counts any such election in the year, not only November’s, so the shares run slightly higher than a November-only count. Voters who registered after 2022 or 2024 could not have voted then. The no-primary row combines two subgroups and may be off by up to 0.1 point from rounding.
Source: Georgia Secretary of State and Civic Forge Solutions, Oct. 31, 2026.
Remaining Democratic primary voters are younger, and most are Black voters. Black voters make up 54.4% of them. Voters under 45 make up 47.2% of them, against 31.1% of remaining Republican primary voters.
Remaining Republican primary voters are mostly White voters and older. White voters make up 88.3% of them. Voters 65 and older make up 30.1% of them, against 21.2% of remaining Democratic primary voters.
Nearly half of remaining Democratic primary voters live in the Metro Atlanta Core. The core holds 45.7% of them and 18.2% of remaining Republican primary voters.
Democratic Primary Voters Who Have Not Voted Early Are Younger and More Likely to Be Black Voters Than Republican Primary Voters Who Have Not
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Shares of the 605,920 Democratic primary voters and 896,873 Republican primary voters on the voter file with no accepted early ballot through Friday, Oct. 30. Race, age and gender are as recorded on the voter file. Voters under 45 are 18 to 44. The Metro Atlanta Core is Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett.
Source: Georgia Secretary of State and Civic Forge Solutions, Oct. 31, 2026.
Where Remaining Voters Live
A third of the voters left live in the Metro Atlanta Core. The five core counties hold 1,777,445 of them, or 32.9%. Fulton has the most of any county, 532,733.
We estimate that remaining voters in the Metro Atlanta Core lean less Democratic than the early voters there. We estimate that 60.3% to 67.7% of the core’s remaining voters prefer Democratic candidates. Our central estimate for the core’s early voters is 69.8%.
We estimate that remaining voters in Atlanta exurban, small-city and rural counties outside the Black Belt sit closer to an even split than early voters there. Those groups still lean Republican under both estimates.
The statewide patterns applied to every county group build part of these differences into the estimate. We apply the same patterns by race, gender and age in every county group, while the early-voter figures reflect each group’s own primary voting. Voters with no primary on record are most of the remaining voters but less than a quarter of early voters, so each group’s estimate for remaining voters is pulled toward the statewide figure.
By Our Estimate, Remaining Voters Lean Less Democratic Than Early Voters in the Metro Atlanta Core and Sit Closer to Even in Exurban, Small-City and Rural Counties Outside the Black Belt
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Registered voters, active and inactive, with no accepted early ballot through Friday, Oct. 30, in seven county groups that do not overlap; every county is in exactly one group. The rural Black Belt group is small, 47,743 voters, so its estimate moves more. In one group, rural counties outside the Black Belt, the low estimate sits above the central one, so that bar runs from the lower to the higher of the two. We apply statewide patterns by race, gender and age to every county group, so differences between groups are partly built in; the early-voter figures reflect each group’s own primary voting.
Source: Georgia Secretary of State and Civic Forge Solutions, Oct. 31, 2026.
Rows show each county group’s registered voters, its voters with no accepted early ballot by last primary, and our estimate for those voters next to the central estimate for its early voters.
| County group | Registered voters | No accepted early ballot | Share of Georgia’s remaining voters | Democratic primary voters | Republican primary voters | No primary on record | Estimated Democratic preference, remaining voters | Early voters, central estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metro Atlanta Core | 2,897,626 | 1,777,445 | 32.9% | 276,735 | 163,089 | 1,337,621 | 60.3% to 67.7% | 69.8% |
| Atlanta suburban counties | 903,860 | 544,176 | 10.1% | 60,188 | 92,471 | 391,517 | 50.4% to 53.4% | 53.4% |
| Atlanta exurban counties | 968,898 | 662,129 | 12.3% | 46,681 | 150,360 | 465,088 | 43.2% to 43.5% | 40.5% |
| Counties with larger cities | 2,146,869 | 1,509,393 | 27.9% | 153,573 | 263,628 | 1,092,192 | 49.4% to 52.1% | 49.9% |
| Small-city counties | 765,861 | 541,402 | 10.0% | 35,286 | 123,963 | 382,153 | 43.6% to 44.6% | 36.1% |
| Rural counties (not Black Belt) | 471,217 | 321,179 | 5.9% | 21,995 | 96,335 | 202,849 | 37.8% to 38.7% | 29.0% |
| Rural Black Belt counties | 69,282 | 47,743 | 0.9% | 11,462 | 7,027 | 29,254 | 60.1% to 66.0% | 61.1% |
| Georgia | 8,223,613 | 5,403,467 | 100.0% | 605,920 | 896,873 | 3,900,674 | 51.2% to 54.8% | 55.1% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Registered voters, active and inactive, on the voter file of Oct. 8, 2026, and those with no accepted early ballot through Friday, Oct. 30. The groups do not overlap; every county is in exactly one group.
| County | Registered voters | No accepted early ballot | Share of the county’s registered voters | Democratic primary voters | Republican primary voters | Estimated Democratic preference, remaining voters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fulton | 871,310 | 532,733 | 61.1% | 86,552 | 40,237 | 61.9% to 69.9% |
| Gwinnett | 661,876 | 425,352 | 64.3% | 52,799 | 44,945 | 56.7% to 62.7% |
| Cobb | 576,909 | 341,065 | 59.1% | 48,004 | 55,139 | 52.6% to 56.2% |
| DeKalb | 576,898 | 338,393 | 58.7% | 68,815 | 19,413 | 66.1% to 75.6% |
| Chatham | 238,601 | 171,974 | 72.1% | 24,087 | 21,154 | 55.1% to 59.5% |
| Clayton | 210,633 | 139,902 | 66.4% | 20,565 | 3,355 | 69.7% to 83.8% |
| Cherokee | 224,222 | 137,959 | 61.5% | 9,063 | 34,399 | 36.9% to 39.3% |
| Henry | 206,014 | 125,035 | 60.7% | 17,611 | 11,889 | 60.5% to 69.0% |
| Forsyth | 185,648 | 110,842 | 59.7% | 7,693 | 24,971 | 40.4% to 41.7% |
| Richmond | 151,051 | 110,720 | 73.3% | 19,237 | 10,898 | 61.3% to 69.3% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Registered voters, active and inactive, on the voter file of Oct. 8, 2026, and those with no accepted early ballot through Friday, Oct. 30.
Mail Ballots Still Out
Georgia voters had not returned 32,167 mail ballots by Friday. Of the 145,469 voters with a mail ballot issued and not cancelled, 113,302 had returned it. That count leaves out 10,605 voters whose latest mail ballot was voided or cancelled.
About a third of the mail ballots still out were mailed to addresses far from home or unclear. That is 10,258 ballots, or 31.9%. They went to another state, outside the continental U.S., an address at least 50 miles away, or an unclear address.
| Where the ballot was sent | Ballots still out | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mailed far from home or to an unclear address | ||
| Outside the continental U.S. | 220 | 0.7% |
| Address unclear | 77 | 0.2% |
| Another state, 50 or more miles away | 7,591 | 23.6% |
| Georgia, 50 or more miles away | 2,370 | 7.4% |
| Mailed closer to home | ||
| Away from home, under 50 miles | 1,153 | 3.6% |
| At home, 65 and older | 11,209 | 34.8% |
| At home, under 65 | 9,547 | 29.7% |
| All mail ballots still out | 32,167 | 100.0% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Mail ballots issued and not yet returned as of Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. Electronic ballots are not included. Each ballot is in exactly one group. Distance is between the mailing address and the home address on the voter’s record.
By our estimate, the 36,904 voters holding an unreturned mail or electronic ballot lean more Democratic than other remaining voters. We estimate that 58.5% to 60.4% of them prefer Democratic candidates. Their last primary was Democratic for 35.7% and Republican for 21.0%.
That group is wider than the 32,167 mail ballots above. It also counts electronic ballots and uses a broader rule for which ballots are outstanding.
How Our Forecast Did
Friday landed inside our forecast range. Georgia’s ballots came in 16,473 above our central estimate of 290,578. The Metro Atlanta Core and the rest of Georgia both landed inside their ranges and above their central estimates.
| Area | Our range, published Oct. 30 | Central estimate | Accepted Friday, Oct. 30 | Against the central estimate | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metro Atlanta Core | 106,261 to 133,322 | 117,895 | 122,006 | +4,111 | Inside the range |
| Rest of Georgia | 148,511 to 195,261 | 172,925 | 185,045 | +12,120 | Inside the range |
| Georgia | 254,113 to 328,187 | 290,578 | 307,051 | +16,473 | Inside the range |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Accepted early ballots, all methods, as of the file of Oct. 31. The Metro Atlanta Core is Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett; the rest of Georgia is the other 154 counties. Each area’s range and central estimate come from its own ratios, so the Georgia row is not the sum of the other two.
What Comes Next
Mail ballots can still arrive until the 7 p.m. deadline on Election Day, so the early-vote total is not final. In 2022, 27,674 ballots, nearly all by mail, were accepted after early voting ended.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. We will publish more analysis as results and final ballot files come in.