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Voters urged to drop off absentee ballots
With Election Day just days away, Georgians who have absentee ballots are being urged to drop them off in-person instead of sending them through the mail.
ATLANTA - Georgia continues to shatter early voting turnout records with three more days left to go.
According to the Georgia Secretary of State's Office, more than 3.2 million people across the Peach State have already voted. That's over 45% of the total number of active voters that have turned up to the polls.
Some counties, like north Georgia's Towns County, have seen turnout of nearly 65%.
Election officials say Tuesday was the first time in Georgia history that the turnout during early voting passed 3 million.
"Georgia voters are making us all proud. Voting in person in record numbers. 3,271,569 votes overall so far," Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, wrote on X, "It's the epitome of America."
Election officials say, between the safeguards they have in place and the high turnout, it's proof of a successful election season so far in the Peach State.
A high volume of voters is still expected at polling locations on Friday, the final day of early voting.
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Signs sit to show people where to go to cast their votes on the first day of early voting at Metropolitan library on Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)
To accommodate the crowds, Fulton County government officials have announced the county's 18 libraries will be open strictly for voting, meaning no library services.
New recommendations for Georgia mail-in voters
The majority of these voters have been in-person with a little more than 200,000 absentee ballots mailed in as of Wednesday morning.
Officials recommend the approximately 140,000 Georgia voters still holding on to their mail-in ballots to drop them off in-person to county election offices or drop boxes instead of putting them in the mail.
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Absentee ballots have to be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day - no matter what the postmark says.
You can find the locations of the drop boxes for metro Atlanta counties here: DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb, Fulton, and Gwinnett.
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Where do I vote?
You can find your polling location through the My Voter Page.
What do I need to bring?
- A valid state or federal government-issued photo ID (including free IDs from county registrars or the Georgia Department of Driver Services)
- A Georgia driver’s license (even if expired)
- A student ID from a Georgia public college or university
- A valid employee photo ID from any federal, state, or local government agency
- A valid U.S. passport or U.S. military photo ID
- A valid tribal photo ID with a photograph of the voter