A record number of first-day early votes were cast in Georgia for a midterm election, state officials said Wednesday, as Vice President JD Vance arrives to rally for Senate GOP candidate Mike Collins.
Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said more than 188,600 voters went to the polls in person Tuesday, up from more than 53,000 in the 2022 midterms. The state has seen a steady increase in early voting in recent years.
"This record-breaking turnout proves that voters have confidence in the integrity of our elections," Raffensperger said in a press release. "It’s a testament to our strong election system overseen by 159 of the best county election officials in the country."
The difficulty in Georgia is that early voting totals have become a poor predictor of which candidate will win. While Democrats once dominated early and absentee voting, Republicans have increasingly embraced these methods since 2022.
The surge follows Tuesday's TV debate between Collins and Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff, which Ossoff framed as a trial for his opponent, a former U.S. Representative.
Newsweek reached out to Ossoff and Collins' campaigns for comment Wednesday morning.
Currently, both of Georgia's U.S. Senate seats are held by Democrats, while Republicans continue to hold several other statewide seats, and over the past few election cycles, its election system has been heavily scrutinized by Trump and the wider Republican Party.
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Vance's Visit to Georgia: What To Know
Vance is visiting the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Wednesday morning. The event was due to begin at 10:40 a.m. local time, with Vance touching down shortly after.
The vice president arrived to chants of "48!" from supporters ahead of his speech.
It wasn't immediately clear what Vance would discuss, but he and President Donald Trump have been touring the U.S. in recent weeks to rally for Republican candidates as Election Day draws closer.
On Tuesday, Vance appeared in Tyler, Texas, to rally for state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is hoping to secure a U.S. Senate seat. The vice president used the rally to hit out at Democratic candidate James Talarico, while also announcing a deal the administration had struck with Delek Refinery in Tyler to expand operations as part of the Defense Production Act.
Early Voting Records in Georgia
Rafensperger's office said that in 2022, 134,962 people cast their votes on the first day of early voting in Georgia, meaning a 40 percent increase was seen in 2026.
The numbers have been steadily rising, with 70,849 people voting on the first day of the 2018 election.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw many voters opt to vote early or by mail, with first-day early votes noticeably increasing for the presidential election in 2020, with over 4 million early votes cast in total that cycle and in 2024.
Georgia provides at least 17 days of early in person voting, one of the longer periods across the U.S., and this has led to a larger percentage of votes being cast before Election Day itself.
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Georgia Senate Race: What Polls Show
Ossoff, who won his seat in 2020, has led in every public poll released since the summer, with the gap between Collins and him varying depending on the pollster.
The latest numbers, from the right-leaning Trafalgar Group, showed Ossoff on 51 percent of the vote compared to 43 percent for Collins, while 5.9 percent remained undecided, in a survey of 1,101 likely voters conducted October 7-9.
Overall, RealClearPolling showed Ossoff with an average 8.1 percent lead over Collins as of October 9.
Forecasters have moved in a similar direction. The Cook Political Report shifted Georgia from "Lean Democrat" to "Likely Democrat" in late September, matching Sabato's Crystal Ball.
Prediction markets have shifted sharply toward Ossoff. As of Wednesday, Kalshi gave him a 95.1 percent chance of winning and Polymarket 96.1 percent, up from just under 75 percent on Kalshi in January.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Sam Wilson.