Early voting turnout falls in runoffs after days reduced by law

138,000 ballots cast, compared to 795,000 in primary.

Georgia’s shortened early voting period before Tuesday’s runoffs drew 138,000 voters, a steep decline from the record 795,000 people who cast ballots in advance of last month’s primary, according to state election data.

While turnout is almost always lower in runoffs, there were also fewer days of early voting this year because of the Georgia voting law passed in 2021. The law called for runoffs to take place four weeks after the primary, leaving less time for early voting.

Early voting ended Friday after one week in most counties. In previous runoffs, three weeks of early voting were often available.

On election day Tuesday, the runoffs will finalize each party’s slate of candidates for the November election. Democratic Party voters will decide races for statewide offices including lieutenant governor and secretary of state, while Republican Party voters will settle four runoffs for Congress.

Many Republican voters don’t have any runoffs in their congressional districts, contributing to lower turnout than the primary.

More voters have cast Democratic ballots so far than Republican ballots. With runoffs in several statewide races, Democratic voters accounted for 61% of early turnout in the runoffs after Republican voters dominated the primary last month.

Senate Bill 202 required one week of early voting and allowed counties to begin early voting as soon as possible after the election. Eight of Georgia’s 159 counties offered more than one week of early voting: Clarke, Cobb, Echols, Fulton, Glynn, Gwinnett, Lowndes and Rockdale.

The Republican-majority General Assembly tightened the runoff period from nine weeks to four weeks following victories by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in runoffs for U.S. Senate in January 2021.