Cobb and Athens-Clarke counties are leading Georgia’s gains over 2022 in the second week of early voting: Cobb in ballots added, Athens-Clarke in percentage. Cobb added more ballots to its lead over 2022 this week than any other county and now has the largest lead of any county. Athens-Clarke, home of the University of Georgia, was slightly behind 2022’s pace in the first week, when it had a single early voting site; after opening three more on Monday, it is 44.6% ahead through Wednesday, Oct. 21, the largest percentage gain of any county, among voters of every age, not only students.
Georgia accepted 42,187 more ballots this week than on the same days of 2022, and its lead over 2022 is now 62,426 ballots. Cherokee and Forsyth, which ran 78.3% ahead of 2022 on the same days of the first week, have fallen behind 2022 each day this week: their voters came out earlier this year, while in 2022 their daily counts jumped in the second week.
Explore daily counts by county and voter group on the Georgia Early Voting Dashboard.
Earlier: The Atlanta suburbs are now driving Georgia’s early vote and Georgia’s early voters lean more Democratic than they did at this point in 2022.
Cobb adds the most ballots; Athens-Clarke grows fastest
Cobb has accepted 110,578 early ballots, 15,762 more than at the same point in 2022, the largest lead of any county, ahead of Gwinnett’s 14,494. Cobb added 7,839 ballots to its lead this week, more than any other county; on Wednesday it accepted 29.1% more ballots than on the matching 2022 day. Cobb’s gain is broad: voters 18 to 34 are 43.7% ahead of 2022 there, and voters 65 and older 20.4%. The Cobb County Courier reported Wednesday that Cobb’s early vote was running “considerably higher” than at the same point in 2022.
Athens-Clarke, home of the University of Georgia, has accepted 11,465 early ballots, 44.6% more than at this point in 2022. After the first week it was 869 ballots, or 16.4%, behind, mostly because the 2022 count includes one more early voting day (see About this analysis); on the same days it was 4.1% behind. It added 4,405 to its lead this week, the most of any county outside metro Atlanta. The county ran early voting at a single site, its elections office, through Sunday, Oct. 18, and opened three more on Monday, at the county library, the Miriam Moore Community Center and the county tennis center, according to the county’s schedule. On Wednesday it accepted 1,817 ballots, more than twice the 799 on the matching 2022 day.
More places to vote likely explain much of the jump. Before the new sites opened, Flagpole reported that Athens-Clarke ranked in the lower half of Georgia’s counties for early turnout, with one site open; the county cited the staff needed to run several sites for three weeks. We have not compared the county’s 2022 sites and hours. But the gain is not only students. Voters 18 to 34 are 54.3% ahead of 2022 there, but voters 65 and older are 41.1% ahead, and every age group is up at least 38%. The University of Georgia’s campus early voting site, at the Tate Student Center, is open Oct. 27 to 29.
| County | Ballots through Wed., Oct. 21 | Ahead of 2022 (ballots) | Running total change | Through Tue., Oct. 20 | Wednesday’s change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobb | 110,578 | +15,762 | +16.6% | +15.2% | +29.1% |
| Gwinnett | 105,047 | +14,494 | +16.0% | +16.4% | +12.4% |
| Fulton | 163,180 | +4,959 | +3.1% | +2.4% | +10.4% |
| DeKalb | 113,286 | +4,801 | +4.4% | +4.7% | +2.0% |
| Cherokee | 40,461 | +7,451 | +22.6% | +28.2% | −9.5% |
| Forsyth | 33,798 | +3,451 | +11.4% | +17.9% | −20.7% |
| Clayton | 35,226 | +1,999 | +6.0% | +4.3% | +26.1% |
| Henry | 37,457 | +3,864 | +11.5% | +12.4% | +3.5% |
| Athens-Clarke | 11,465 | +3,536 | +44.6% | +35.3% | +127.4% |
| Richmond | 19,247 | +5,644 | +41.5% | +65.1% | −37.1% |
| Chatham | 31,405 | +2,230 | +7.6% | +7.4% | +9.7% |
| Bibb | 16,932 | +747 | +4.6% | +7.7% | −15.5% |
| Muscogee | 19,873 | −1,375 | −6.5% | −7.3% | +2.4% |
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Shaded rows: Cherokee and Forsyth. Gwinnett’s 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated ballots.
Fulton added 6,154 ballots to its lead this week, second to Cobb, and is 4,959 ahead of 2022 through Wednesday, or 3.1%. 94 of Georgia’s 159 counties accepted more ballots on Wednesday than on the matching 2022 day.
This week’s gain was broad
Through Wednesday, Georgia had accepted 1,330,446 early ballots, 62,426 more than at the same point in 2022. That running total counts one more 2022 voting day than 2026: this year’s first matched day, Monday, Oct. 12, was Columbus Day, with no in-person voting, while the matching 2022 day, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022, had 147,309 ballots. So we compare this week and the first week on the same days in both years.
The lead about matches the growth in Georgia’s registered voters, up 4.9% since 2022: 16.2% of registered voters have voted early, the same share as at this point in 2022.
This week, Monday to Wednesday, Georgia accepted 465,976 early ballots, 42,187 or 10.0% more than on the same days of 2022, after 23.8% more in the first week. Every area but Cherokee and Forsyth added to the lead. The seven suburban counties other than Cherokee and Forsyth, led by Cobb, added 20,007; Fulton and DeKalb added 8,507; and the other 148 counties, led by Athens-Clarke, added 19,367. Cherokee and Forsyth gave back 5,694.
How to read this table: the first two columns are the change from 2022 on the same days; the next three are how many ballots each area added to its lead each day this week.
| Area | First week | This week | Mon. ballots | Tue. | Wed. | This week ballots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cherokee and Forsyth | +78.3% | −17.7% | −2,318 | −1,852 | −1,524 | −5,694 |
| Seven other suburban counties | +33.3% | +19.9% | +6,002 | +8,598 | +5,407 | +20,007 |
| Fulton and DeKalb | +22.2% | +10.2% | +1,311 | +5,394 | +1,802 | +8,507 |
| Other 148 counties | +15.7% | +9.3% | +7,001 | +10,157 | +2,209 | +19,367 |
| Georgia | +23.8% | +10.0% | +11,996 | +22,297 | +7,894 | +42,187 |
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First week: Tue., Oct. 13 to Sun., Oct. 18. This week: Mon., Oct. 19 to Wed., Oct. 21. Accepted early ballots compared with the 2022 days the same number of days before Election Day; the ballot columns are how many each area added to its lead. The first week leaves out Mon., Oct. 17, 2022, which matches Columbus Day 2026, when there was no in-person voting. Seven other suburban counties: Cobb, Gwinnett, Henry, Clayton, Douglas, Fayette and Rockdale. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
The Atlanta suburbs are still growing fastest, but this week’s gain came from across Georgia. The nine suburban counties were 39.4% ahead of 2022 on the same days of the first week and supplied 46.7% of Georgia’s gain; this week they were 10.8% ahead and supplied 33.9%. Our Day 8 report put the suburbs’ share of Georgia’s lead at about 90%; that share was inflated by the extra 2022 day, which weighs more on the rest of Georgia.
Part of this week’s suburban gain rests on an estimate. The state’s 2022 records are missing most of Gwinnett’s early ballots from Oct. 24, 2022 on, the days matched to this week, so Gwinnett’s 2022 counts for those days are our estimate. Gwinnett added 5,988 ballots to the lead this week; without it, the other six suburban counties added 14,019. How we estimated Gwinnett’s ballots.
Cherokee and Forsyth voted early; in 2022, the second week was busier
Cherokee and Forsyth’s daily pace fell about 12% this week; in 2022, it more than doubled. In the first week, the two counties averaged 10,044 accepted ballots each weekday, more than twice the 4,948 on the matching 2022 days. This week they have averaged 8,827, while the matching 2022 days averaged 10,725. Each county has cast fewer ballots than on the matching 2022 day every weekday this week: Cherokee by 7% to 17%, Forsyth by 21% to 27%. Only their running totals are still ahead.
Cherokee and Forsyth voters came out in the first week; in 2022, the second week was busier
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Accepted early ballots, all methods, in Cherokee and Forsyth counties combined. Each 2026 day is shown with the 2022 day the same number of days before Election Day.
That points to a shift in timing rather than fewer voters. More of the two counties’ voters came out in the first week this year. In 2022, their daily counts roughly doubled at the start of the second week, a jump that could reflect added voting sites or hours. That early surge drew notice: Forsyth News reported that Forsyth’s first-day turnout “nearly triples” 2022’s, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote Oct. 20 that early participation had “jumped compared with 2022” in the two counties. Their running total is still 17.2% ahead of 2022, down from 53.2% after the first week. We have not compared the two years’ voting locations and hours.
Hispanic and Asian voters are far ahead of 2022
Hispanic voters have cast 38,339 early ballots, nearly twice the 19,315 at this point in 2022, and Asian voters 31,550, 59.0% more. Black voters are 15.0% ahead, and White voters 2.8% behind. Part of that reflects more Hispanic registered voters in the state’s records, up 41.0% since 2022 as fewer voters have no race recorded; Hispanic voters’ early turnout rate is up about 40%, from 6.3% to 8.9%. Asian registered voters are up 28.6%. Hispanic and Asian voters are still small shares of the early vote, 2.9% and 2.4%. Atlanta News First reports that Georgia has more than 400,000 registered Latino voters, nearly a third of them under 30, and that volunteers are helping Spanish-speaking voters at early voting sites in Gwinnett, DeKalb and Clayton.
Voters 18 to 34 are 21.5% ahead of 2022, and voters 65 and older 10.3%, while voters 35 to 64 are slightly behind.
| Group | 2026 | 2022 | Change | Share of early voters, 2026 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race | |||||
| White voters | 704,210 | 724,313 | −2.8% | 52.9% | 57.1% |
| Black voters | 449,597 | 390,986 | +15.0% | 33.8% | 30.8% |
| Hispanic voters | 38,339 | 19,315 | +98.5% | 2.9% | 1.5% |
| Asian voters | 31,550 | 19,846 | +59.0% | 2.4% | 1.6% |
| Other or not recorded | 106,104 | 113,532 | −6.5% | 8.0% | 9.0% |
| Age | |||||
| 18 to 34 | 138,859 | 114,261 | +21.5% | 10.4% | 9.0% |
| 35 to 54 | 287,485 | 298,128 | −3.6% | 21.6% | 23.5% |
| 55 to 64 | 285,220 | 294,961 | −3.3% | 21.4% | 23.3% |
| 65 and older | 618,235 | 560,629 | +10.3% | 46.5% | 44.2% |
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Running totals through Oct. 21, 2026 and Oct. 26, 2022. Race and age as recorded in each year’s voter file. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
Fewer new registrants, but more young and Hispanic voters among them
Voters who registered since the last general election have cast 37,882 early ballots, 20.5% fewer than new registrants had at this point in 2022. The shortfall is among older new voters: new voters 18 to 34 are 4.2% ahead of 2022, while new voters 35 and older are about a third behind. By race, Hispanic new voters are 57.5% ahead and White new voters 36.6% behind. For 2026, new registrants are those first registered after the November 2024 general; for 2022, after the November 2020 general.
Early voters have about the same voting record as in 2022. 83.0% voted in both of the last two November general elections, against 81.8% in 2022. But fewer voted in both of the last two primaries: voters with a record in all four elections are 17.8% behind 2022, while those who voted in both Novembers but neither primary are 69.4% ahead. That shift mostly reflects who voted in the May 2024 and May 2026 primaries, not who is voting now: 24.3% fewer registered voters have a record in all four elections than in 2022, and those who do have voted early at a higher rate, 51.6% against 47.5%. Voters who sat out the last November general are 14.9% ahead of 2022.
Early voters whose most recent party primary was a Democratic one are 21.4% ahead of 2022, 644,610 against 530,836, while those whose most recent was a Republican primary are 9.9% behind, 487,422 against 540,766. These counts use each voter’s primaries through May 2026 (through May 2022 for the 2022 comparison). Part of the change is in the pools: registered voters whose most recent primary was Democratic are up 14.8% since 2022, against 1.0% for Republican, and their early turnout rates moved from 34.1% to 36.0% and from 28.9% to 25.8%. Georgia has open primaries, and some Democratic-leaning voters chose Republican ballots in the May 2022 primary. For what the early electorate’s mix means for its lean, see our companion update, Update: Georgia’s Senate scenarios hold steady as Cobb and Athens move in opposite directions, which measures primary history on a different basis.
| Voted in the last two November generals and the last two primaries | 2026 | 2022 | Change | Share of early voters, 2026 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voted in all four | 462,905 | 562,900 | −17.8% | 34.8% | 44.4% |
| Both Novembers, one primary | 388,842 | 325,579 | +19.4% | 29.2% | 25.7% |
| Both Novembers, no primary | 252,660 | 149,193 | +69.4% | 19.0% | 11.8% |
| One November, no primary | 67,886 | 44,477 | +52.6% | 5.1% | 3.5% |
| One November, one primary | 36,423 | 38,511 | −5.4% | 2.7% | 3.0% |
| One November, both primaries | 7,349 | 18,339 | −59.9% | 0.6% | 1.4% |
| Primaries only | 5,377 | 4,461 | +20.5% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| None of the four | 16,228 | 10,336 | +57.0% | 1.2% | 0.8% |
| Registered too recently for a full record | 92,130 | 114,196 | −19.3% | 6.9% | 9.0% |
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For 2026, the elections are the November 2022 and 2024 generals and the May 2024 and May 2026 primaries; for 2022, the November 2018 and 2020 generals and the June 2020 and May 2022 primaries. From state voter history records. Groups with fewer than 1,000 early voters in 2026 are not shown.
Wednesday’s gain was smaller, and is likely to grow
On Wednesday, Georgia accepted 140,959 early ballots, 5.9% more than on the matching 2022 Wednesday, the smallest weekday gain so far. In-person ballots were 13.0% ahead.
The latest day’s count usually rises as counties enter late records. Tuesday’s count rose from 156,549 in the Oct. 21 records to 158,861 in the Oct. 22 records, and its gain over 2022 from 14.6% to 16.3%.
| Day (days until Election Day) | 2026 all ballots | 2026 in person | 2022 all ballots | 2022 in person | Day’s change | Running total change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue., Oct. 13 (21) | 196,830 | 190,395 | 146,775 | 134,872 | +34.1% | −31.8% |
| Wed., Oct. 14 (20) | 180,518 | 174,528 | 146,366 | 127,797 | +23.3% | −13.6% |
| Thu., Oct. 15 (19) | 171,557 | 164,283 | 138,383 | 123,017 | +24.0% | −4.7% |
| Fri., Oct. 16 (18) | 189,034 | 180,882 | 156,513 | 141,774 | +20.8% | +0.7% |
| Sat., Oct. 17 (17) | 95,363 | 91,415 | 86,837 | 80,309 | +9.8% | +1.7% |
| Sun., Oct. 18 (16) | 25,325 | 24,808 | 18,764 | 18,113 | +35.0% | +2.4% |
| Mon., Oct. 19 (15) | 166,156 | 155,259 | 154,160 | 133,499 | +7.8% | +3.2% |
| Tue., Oct. 20 (14) | 158,861 | 150,929 | 136,564 | 125,664 | +16.3% | +4.8% |
| Wed., Oct. 21 (13) | 140,959 | 135,237 | 133,065 | 119,663 | +5.9% | +4.9% |
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
Each 2026 day is compared with the 2022 day the same number of days before Election Day. 2022 counts from Oct. 24, 2022 include estimated Gwinnett ballots.
Mail ballots are still coming back more slowly
41.6% of the 144,246 mail ballots requested so far have been returned, against 50.7% at the same point in 2022 and 46.6% in 2024. The gap with 2022 is 9.1 percentage points, about the same as in our Day 8 report, which found it is largest in six counties, four of which have recorded returns late or in batches. Our Day 8 analysis of the mail gap.
What we are watching next
- Whether Athens-Clarke stays ahead as it adds a fifth site on Saturday, Oct. 24, and how much the University of Georgia’s campus site adds Oct. 27 to 29.
- Whether Cherokee and Forsyth keep falling behind 2022’s daily pace. Their running lead is 10,902 ballots.
- Thursday, Oct. 22, matches Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, when Georgia accepted 124,893 ballots.
- Friday, Oct. 23, is the last day to request a mail ballot; it matches Friday, Oct. 28, 2022, when Georgia accepted 150,236 ballots.
At this pace, the dashboard projects about 2.66 million early ballots by Election Day, with an 80% range of 2.44 million to 3.34 million, against 2,534,136 in 2022.