As Georgia sets a new statewide record for in-person early voting, advance voting in Athens is also off to a roaring start.
Clarke County was one of the handful of Georgia counties that got an early start on early voting, holding in-person early voting on both Saturday and Sunday. Those two days along drew over 2,100 voters.
Monday's early voting added thousands more to the tally. As of Monday night, the number of early voters in the county had surged to 7,132, over 10% of Clarke County’s registered voters.
Those skyrocketing numbers put Clarke County near the top of the list in runoff turnout, 11th out of Georgia’s 159 counties in terms of turnout percentage. That’s a significant change from the first days of early voting in the November general election where Clarke County early voting was lackluster.
Looking at who is voting early in Athens-Clarke County, Black voters as of Monday are a much larger portion of the electorate then in the November general election, although that proportion might change as early voting continues. So far in Clarke County, Black voters make up 26% percent of voters, compared with 20% in the November 8th election.
The electorate also skews older, with some 68% of voters age 50 or older. But, if the November 8 election is an indicator, look for a surge of younger voters on election day. In the November midterm, nearly two-thirds of election day voters were under the age of 50 and nearly a quarter were under age 30.
