- Georgia voters on Friday cast over 350,000 ballots, setting a one-day statewide early voting record.
- The previous one-day early voting record was on Tuesday when nearly 310,000 voters cast ballots.
Georgia on Friday set a one-day record for early voting in the state, as more than 350,000 Peach State voters cast ballots in the Senate runoff between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican candidate Herschel Walker.
According to Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state's office, at least 353,440 people had voted on Friday by 9:45 p.m., smashing a previous record that had been set on Tuesday, when nearly 310,000 Georgians went to polling locations across the state to cast ballots.
"Our totals are over 1.8 million with a few days of absentees to arrive. That will likely put us over 1.9 million by Election Day," he wrote on Twitter.
On Friday night, Sterling praised the efforts of election officials and precinct workers who had prepared for early voting, which began in some localities last week.
"Great job by the counties' elections officials and voters," he said on the social media platform.
Before Friday, the one-day record for early voting in Georgia was set during the 2018 midterm cycle, when 233,000 people voted on the last day of early voting that year.
Headed into Election Day on Tuesday, turnout among Georgia voters sat at 26.4% as of December 3, per the secretary of state's office. The voter breakdown was 55% white, 32% Black, 9% unknown or other, 2% Asian, and 2% Hispanic.
Warnock is seeking a full six-year term after winning a runoff election last year against then-GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler to fill the remaining term of former Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson. He has sought to emphasize his bipartisanship and accomplishments in the upper chamber, including his work to enact a $35 insulin cap for individuals on Medicare, which was passed through the Inflation Reduction Act. (Warnock continues to push for a price cap for individuals with private insurance, a provision that was blocked by Senate Republicans earlier this year.)
Walker has sought to portray Warnock as beholden to President Joe Biden and Democratic interests, playing up gas prices and inflation while arguing that a Republican victory would give the party real leverage in a 50-50 Senate controlled by Democrats due to Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote.
If Warnock were to win, the Senate would have a 51-49 Democratic majority in January; the party flipped the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania Senate seat with the victory of Sen.-elect John Fetterman, who defeated Republican Mehmet Oz.