Georgia’s early vote is now ahead of 2022. With 18 days until Election Day, the state has accepted 741,388 early ballots, 2,882 more than at this point in 2022. Black voters have cast 16,460 more ballots than in 2022. Black voters 65 and older account for 11,102 of that gain; White voters 65 and older have cast 4,985 more than in 2022. Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton, the counties a Democratic statewide win runs through, are behind 2022, while Republican-leaning Cherokee and Forsyth are far ahead.
Explore daily counts by county and voter group on the Georgia Early Voting Dashboard.
Georgia accepted 186,920 ballots on Friday, Oct. 16, 30,439 more than on the matching Friday in 2022, Oct. 21, turning a 27,557-ballot shortfall through Thursday into a lead. It was this year’s second-largest day, after Tuesday’s 196,758. Compared with 2024, a presidential year, the statewide total is 38.8% lower.
This year has one fewer day of in-person voting than 2022 at this point. In 2022, in-person voting began on Monday, Oct. 17, 22 days until Election Day, and Georgia had 150,566 accepted ballots by that night. This year it began on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 21 days until Election Day. At 18 days until Election Day, 2022 had five days of in-person voting and 2026 has four.
- In-person ballots total 709,724, 47,457 more than at this point in 2022, a 7.2% lead.
- Every day of in-person voting has topped 2022’s matching day: by 50,017 ballots on Tuesday, 34,101 on Wednesday, 33,064 on Thursday and 30,439 on Friday.
- Friday’s count was 9.0% above Thursday’s. 2022’s matching Friday rose 13.1% over its Thursday, and 2024’s rose 11.1%.
Georgia’s running total passed 2022’s on Friday
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In-person voting began on Monday, Oct. 17, in 2022, 22 days until Election Day, and on a Tuesday, 21 days until Election Day, in 2024 and 2026.
Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton trail 2022 while Cherokee and Forsyth surge
A path to Democratic victories in Georgia runs through Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton. Kamala Harris won the three counties by a combined 554,431 votes in 2024 and still lost the state to Donald Trump by 115,100. For Democrats to keep the race competitive, these counties need to vote above their 2022 levels, and so far they are not.
The three counties have accepted 172,038 early ballots, 1,893 fewer than at this point in 2022. Fulton is 1,161 ballots behind, a 1.3% drop, after trailing by 5,433 in Thursday’s report. DeKalb is 304 behind, 0.5%, and Clayton 428 behind, 2.0%. In each, a smaller share of registered voters has voted early than at this point in 2022: 10.3% in Fulton, against 10.5%; 10.7% in DeKalb, against 10.8%; and 9.8% in Clayton, against 10.2%.
Cherokee and Forsyth, two Republican strongholds, are moving the other way. Trump won 69.1% of the vote in Cherokee and 66.0% in Forsyth in 2024. Cherokee has accepted 22,679 early ballots, 7,990 more than at this point in 2022, a 54.4% gain. Forsyth has accepted 17,786, 8,090 more, an 83.4% gain. Together the two counties are 16,080 ballots ahead of 2022, more than eight times the shortfall in Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton.
Cherokee and Forsyth are 16,080 ballots ahead of 2022; Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton are 1,893 behind
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Change compares Oct. 16, 2026 with Oct. 21, 2022, 18 days until Election Day. The 2024 share is the winning presidential candidate’s share of all votes cast for president in the county.
- Registration growth explains little of the gains: 9.6% of Forsyth’s registered voters have voted early, against 5.5% at this point in 2022, and 10.1% of Cherokee’s, against 7.1%.
- Young voters are the exception in the three Democratic counties. Voters 18 to 34 are ahead of 2022 by 900 ballots in Fulton, 225 in DeKalb and 278 in Clayton; voters of all other ages are behind by 2,061, 529 and 706.
Black voters, led by those 65 and older, widened their leads over 2022
Black voters have cast 258,205 early ballots, 16,460 more than at this point in 2022, a 6.8% lead. Through Thursday, they were 927 ahead.
Voters 65 and older have cast 373,879 early ballots, 18,466 more than in 2022, but the gain splits sharply by race. Black voters 65 and older have cast 110,345, 11,102 more than in 2022, an 11.2% lead. They account for 60.1% of the gain among voters 65 and older while casting 29.5% of their ballots. White voters 65 and older have cast 232,010, 4,985 more, a 2.2% lead.
- Hispanic and Asian voters 65 and older have cast 8,793 ballots, 3,370 more than in 2022.
- Voters 65 and older whose race is recorded as another race or not recorded have cast 22,731, 991 fewer than in 2022.
- Through Thursday, Black voters 65 and older were 4,978 ahead of 2022 and White voters 65 and older 4,765 behind.
White voters are 20,311 ballots behind 2022, down from 29,605 through Thursday. White voters 18 to 64 are 25,294 behind, a 13.6% drop, which more than offsets the gain among White voters 65 and older. Voters 35 to 64 of all races are 24,056 behind, down from 31,766.
- Voters 65 and older cast 42.3% of Friday’s ballots, down from 53.2% through Thursday.
- Black voters cast 33.4% of Friday’s ballots, down from 35.3% through Thursday. On 2022’s matching Friday, Black voters cast 29.9% of ballots.
Among voters 65 and older, Black voters are 11.2% ahead of 2022 and White voters 2.2% ahead
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Through Thursday compares Oct. 15, 2026 with Oct. 20, 2022; through Friday compares Oct. 16, 2026 with Oct. 21, 2022. The Core Counties are Clayton, DeKalb, Cobb, Fulton and Gwinnett.
Young voters in Gwinnett and Cobb are far ahead of 2022
Young voters in Gwinnett and Cobb are outpacing 2022 by the widest margins in the Core Counties. Gwinnett’s voters 18 to 34 have cast 6,648 early ballots, 43.8% more than the 4,624 at this point in 2022. Cobb’s have cast 6,427, 29.9% more than 4,946. The two counties account for 3,505 of the statewide gain of 8,237 among young voters, 42.6%. Clayton’s young voters are 15.8% ahead of 2022, Fulton’s 9.0% and DeKalb’s 3.5%.
Statewide, voters 18 to 34 have cast 63,199 early ballots, 8,237 more than at this point in 2022, a 15.0% lead. That is 2.6% of the 2,454,944 registered voters 18 to 34, counting all registered voters in the voter file, active and inactive. In 2022, 2.3% of 2,393,202 had voted at this point; in 2024, a presidential year, 5.5% of 2,509,944.
Their pace picked up on Friday. Voters 18 to 34 cast 14,280 ballots on Tuesday, 13,597 on Wednesday, 14,365 on Thursday and 20,645 on Friday. Their share of each day’s ballots grew from 7.3% on Tuesday to 11.0% on Friday. On 2022’s matching days, it grew from 6.4% to 9.9%.
- Nearly all young voters are voting in person: 61,993 of their 63,199 ballots, 20.0% more in-person ballots than at this point in 2022.
- In the Core Counties, voters 18 to 34 cast 11.4% of early ballots; in the rest of the state, 6.7%. Their count is 17.7% ahead of 2022 in the Core Counties and 12.2% ahead in the rest of the state.
Voters 18 to 34 cast 11.0% of Friday’s ballots, up from 7.3% on Tuesday
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Each point is the share of that day’s accepted early ballots cast by voters 18 to 34. Days are matched by days until Election Day.
Thursday’s count rose in the new records
The state records released Saturday include 2,406 more ballots returned through Thursday than the records released Friday, 2,053 of them by mail. Thursday’s count is now 171,427, up from 169,338, and Thursday’s running total is 554,468.
Georgia has accepted 29,353 mail ballots, 4.0% of this year’s early ballots. Mail ballots are counted when county election offices accept them, so recent days fill in as offices process returns.
How to read this table: each row is one day. The 2022 and 2024 columns show the day with the same number of days until Election Day. Mail ballots are counted on the day a county election office accepts them, so this year’s mail counts for recent days can rise in later records; 2022 and 2024 mail counts are not shown.
| Day (days until Election Day) | 2026 all ballots | 2026 in person | 2026 mail | 2022 all ballots | 2022 in person | 2024 all ballots | 2024 in person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday (21) | 196,758 | 190,393 | 6,062 | 146,741 | 134,841 | 326,884 | 310,956 |
| Wednesday (20) | 180,456 | 174,526 | 5,777 | 146,355 | 127,790 | 289,814 | 277,756 |
| Thursday (19) | 171,427 | 164,208 | 7,066 | 138,363 | 122,998 | 275,209 | 258,051 |
| Friday (18) | 186,920 | 180,595 | 6,198 | 156,481 | 141,742 | 305,667 | 287,308 |
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- Friday’s in-person count, 180,595, was 38,853 above 2022’s matching Friday and 106,713 below 2024’s.
- In-person ballots rose 10.0% from Thursday to Friday, against 15.2% in 2022 and 11.3% in 2024.
- Friday’s lead over 2022’s matching day, 30,439, was the smallest of the four in-person days.
35 counties are ahead of 2022
Thirty-five of Georgia’s 159 counties have accepted more early ballots than at this point in 2022, up from 21 in Thursday’s report, and 124 have accepted fewer. The median county is 10.1% behind 2022, while the statewide total is 0.4% ahead; 80 counties are at least 10% behind.
The 35 counties ahead include 12 of the 20 with the most registered voters. Together they have accepted 331,815 ballots, 35,970 more than in 2022, while the 124 counties behind have accepted 409,573, 33,088 fewer. Forsyth and Cherokee account for 16,080 of the gain.
35 of Georgia’s 159 counties have accepted more early ballots than at this point in 2022
Change in accepted early ballots from Oct. 21, 2022 to Oct. 16, 2026, both 18 days until Election Day.
How to read this table: the five counties with the largest gains in accepted early ballots over 2022 at 18 days until Election Day, then the five with the largest losses. Shaded rows are Core Counties.
| County | 2026 ballots | 2022 ballots | Change in ballots | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forsyth | 17,786 | 9,696 | +8,090 | +83.4% |
| Cherokee | 22,679 | 14,689 | +7,990 | +54.4% |
| Gwinnett | 54,124 | 49,715 | +4,409 | +8.9% |
| Cobb | 60,051 | 55,796 | +4,255 | +7.6% |
| Richmond | 11,258 | 7,230 | +4,028 | +55.7% |
| Muscogee | 11,823 | 13,338 | -1,515 | -11.4% |
| Paulding | 10,776 | 12,170 | -1,394 | -11.5% |
| Lowndes | 6,150 | 7,453 | -1,303 | -17.5% |
| Fulton | 89,638 | 90,799 | -1,161 | -1.3% |
| Habersham | 2,952 | 4,034 | -1,082 | -26.8% |
- No county is more than 1,515 ballots behind 2022.
- Cobb and Gwinnett are the only Core Counties ahead of 2022.
Atlanta Metro’s Democratic Core, called the Core Counties here, is Clayton, DeKalb, Cobb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties; the other 154 counties are the rest of the state. The Core Counties have accepted 286,213 early ballots, 2.4% more than at this point in 2022, and the rest of the state 455,175, 0.8% fewer. Through Thursday, the Core Counties were 3.0% behind and the rest of the state 5.8% behind.
What we are watching next
- Saturday, Oct. 17, is 17 days until Election Day, matching Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, when Georgia accepted 86,828 ballots. To stay ahead of 2022’s running total at 17 days until Election Day, 825,334, Georgia must add 83,946.
- 2024 accepted 175,431 ballots on its matching Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, and reached 1,387,758.
- Monday, Oct. 19, matches Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, when Georgia accepted 153,708 ballots.