Georgia shatters its Day 1 early voting record for a midterm

Georgia set a midterm election record on its first day of early voting Tuesday, with more than 188,000 ballots cast. That is about 50,000 more than the number who voted early on Day 1 in 2022 , according to the Georgia secretary of state’s office.

Driving the high turnout is Black voters, who made up more than 36 percent of Day 1 early votes cast, according to nonpartisan election data site VoteHub. That is more than 6 percent higher than in 2024, VoteHub said.

Georgia is home to some of the 2026 midterm elections’ most closely watched races, including contests for the U.S. Senate and governor.

In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is fighting to win reelection against GOP challenger Rep. Mike Collins (Ga.) in a state that President Trump won by about 2 points. Republicans had hoped to make the Georgia Senate race competitive given the state’s battleground status, but Ossoff has led in every preelection poll.

Nonpartisan election data site Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), a partner of The Hill, gives Ossoff an 88 percent chance at winning reelection, and he leads by an average of 8.8 points in DDHQ’s polling average.

Ossoff and Collins faced off in their last scheduled debate Tuesday night, hosted by the Atlanta Press Club.

But a much more competitive contest is the Georgia governor’s race. Former Democratic Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is facing off against healthcare executive Rick Jackson to fill the open seat created by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s retirement.

Jackson, who is a billionaire, has far outspent Bottoms in no small part by self-funding his campaign. DDHQ’s forecast gives Bottoms a 57 percent chance of flipping the governor’s mansion, though Jackson leads by 2 points in the polling average.

Georgia home to election integrity questions

The Peach State is no stranger to competitive elections, but it has also been the epicenter of questions of election integrity on both sides.

After the 2020 presidential election, Trump placed a phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to find more than 11,000 votes, the amount needed to overturn former President Biden’s win. Raffensperger refused.

And in the 2018 gubernatorial election, Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams accused Kemp, her Republican opponent, of using his position as secretary of state to suppress voters. A court ruled against Abrams in 2022.

Raffensperger affirmed the strength of Georgia’s election system Wednesday.

“This record-breaking turnout proves that voters have confidence in the integrity of our elections,” Raffensperger said in a statement.

The latest turnout information can be found on the Georgia secretary of state’s election data website .