Harris courts early voters in Georgia amid record turnout

Vice President Kamala Harris made her case to voters in Georgia late Saturday, seeking to appeal to early voters who are turning out in record numbers in the battleground state.

Since early voting began this week in Georgia, more than 1 million voters have cast ballots, a record turnout for early voting in the state, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

Polls show Ms. Harris is in a tight race with former President Donald Trump in the Peach State, and both sides are optimistic early voting is breaking their way.

“So Georgia, now is our time to act. The baton is in our hands. Election Day is 17 days away, and early voting has already started,” Ms. Harris said at a rally outside of Atlanta with pop singer Usher, who attended high school in the area. “You guys are setting some records, by the way.”

Ms. Harris also referenced former President Jimmy Carter, who cast his vote by mail earlier this week.

“Georgia’s own president, Jimmy Carter, voted early … just days after his 100th birthday. So if Jimmy Carter can vote early, you can too,” she told the crowd.

As of Friday evening, 1.2 million votes had been cast in Georgia, which accounts for 16.7% of active voters in the state. The majority of the votes, roughly 1.13 million, were cast in person, officials said.

The first day of early voting saw more than 310,000 votes cast in person on Tuesday, more than double the number of voters who showed up on the first day of early voting in 2020. That year, President Biden beat Mr. Trump by just over 11,000 votes in Georgia.

The counties with the highest turnout on the first day of early voting were won by Democrats four years ago, including Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett — all some of the most urban and Democratic areas in Georgia.

But since then, the counties with the highest turnouts are places Mr. Trump won overwhelmingly in the last election, according to state data. 

Towns County, a rural area that borders South Carolina, led the state as of Friday evening with nearly 30% of active voters casting a ballot. Mr. Trump won the county with 80% of the vote in 2020. 

Rabin County, another rural area in the northern part of the state, has had the second-highest turnout with more than 25% of voters casting a ballot so far. Mr. Trump won 62.8% of the vote there in 2020, compared to 36.3% of the voters who backed Mr. Biden.

Among the counties that Mr. Biden won in 2020, Baldwin County, which sits near Macon, has the highest early voting turnout, with 19% of voters showing up as of Friday.

James Blair, political director of the Trump campaign, said he believes early voting is “going quite well.” 

“We think it is going quite well. We think that there is — as of the third day [of early voting] about a 23-point swing in our favor from the same point in 2020,” Mr. Blair said, noting the share of the White vote is up, and the Black vote is down.

Josh McKoon, chair of the Georgia GOP, rejected the idea that the early vote totals were good news for Democrats. 

He said Democrats likely need to win 90% of the African American vote and for it to comprise a third of the overall vote. The early vote total showed the Black vote hovering under 28%.

“Those are pretty big red flags,” Mr. McKoon said.

He also said the initial early vote totals showed strong turnout in the seven Republican-held congressional Districts and that some of the GOP-friendly rural areas hit by the recent Hurricane also posted strong tallies.

Voters do not have to register by a party in Georgia.