Peach State record voting

Early voting in Georgia’s primary races has surged to record numbers despite dire warnings from Democrats that a new election law would suppress turnout — with President Biden likening it last year to “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”

In the three weeks of early voting, more than 850,000 ballots were cast in person or returned via absentee ballot, representing a 212% jump over the 2020 presidential primary race and a 168% increase over the 2018 gubernatorial primary contest, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement last Friday.

“The incredible turnout we have seen demonstrates once and for all that Georgia’s Election Integrity Act struck a good balance between the guardrails of access and security,” Raffensperger said in the statement.

When Gov. Brian Kemp signed the voting reforms in March 2021 imposing new rules on absentee voting that included requiring a photo ID and shortening the voting window, critics howled.

Biden, who defeated Donald Trump in Georgia in 2020 to become the first Democrat to win the state since 1992, was among those predicting the law would put a damper on voting, especially among minority groups, and called it “unAmerican.”

“This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It must end,” he said.

But more than a year removed from the initial hubbub over the law, 857,401 people cast early ballots — including 795,567 in person and 61,744 by absentee as of May 20, Raffensperger said.

The heightened turnout was powered by Republicans, who cast 483,149 votes compared with the 368,949 cast by Democrats and the 5,303 nonpartisan votes.