ATLANTA — Early voting for the presidential primaries in Georgia has now been going for just more than a week, and a state election official on Tuesday provided an update on how totals are looking so far.
Georgia's primary day is still two more Tuesdays away -- on March 12 -- but early voting will continue until the last Friday before that date, March 8.
So far, according to Gabriel Sterling -- who is the chief operating officer in the Georgia Secretary of State's Office -- more than 140,000 people have voted in the primary. That breaks down to roughly 130,000 early in-person votes and a little more than 10,000 absentee ballots returned.
Sterling also provided numbers regarding votes in each party's primary and the top five counties in voter turnout so far.
Here's the breakdown:
Georgia presidential primary early voting totals by party & top counties
According to Sterling, the party breakdown goes:
- Republican: 88,587
- Democratic: 51,678
- Non-partisan: 139
Top five counties:
- Fulton: 15,787
- Cobb: 11,310
- DeKalb: 9,201
- Gwinnett: 7,040
- Cherokee: 5,117
This weekend, there will be a mandatory Saturday of early voting and an optional Sunday, with the decision whether to have the Sunday voting left to the counties. Then early voting will continue through next week.
For those who are absentee voting -- there is no specific deadline by which to send your ballot back, however it must be received by the close of polls on Election Day, March 12. That means you should try to send as far in advance as possible.
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