By Fox News (Politics) | Created at 2024-11-02 09:28:13 | Updated at 2024-11-02 12:29:32
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Georgia Republicans appear confident the state’s record-setting early voting numbers will favor their 2024 presidential nominee.
"It’s been record turnout, something unbelievable — voting from all across the state," Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones told Fox News Digital. "I think the enthusiasm, the momentum, is with President Trump."
The former commander in chief lost Georgia by less than 1% in 2020, and Republicans have poured enormous time and resources into winning it back Nov. 5.
A significant part of that strategy has been convincing people to cast ballots early, traditionally a voting method more favored by Democrats.
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Rural counties won by former President Trump in 2020 have so far outpaced blue strongholds in percentage of population voting early. (Getty Images)
And both parties’ emphasis on early voting has had a seismic effect. During the early voting period between Oct. 15 and Nov. 1, nearly 4 million Georgians cast in-person or absentee ballots, more than half the state’s active voters.
Over 700,000 people who voted already in 2024 did not vote at all in 2020, according to Georgia Votes.
Meanwhile, the top three counties for voter turnout rates are rural areas won by Trump in 2020.
Both of those factors, Jones argued, were favorable indicators for the ex-president.
"We've got a lot of voters that voted in 2016 but didn't vote in 2020. … What makes me believe that they are Trump voters is that most of them are ... from parts of the state that are pretty strong Republican strongholds," he said.
"You start breaking down where they live, where they were historically as far as the Republican cards they pulled in the past, and, like I said, the on-the-ground enthusiasm for [Trump] right now is pretty off the charts."
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is hoping for a repeat of President Biden's 2020 victory in Georgia. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Asked why he believes some of Trump’s base did not turn out in 2020 but is voting now, Jones said, "I'll be honest with you. I think that there are a lot of people that just felt like, you know, the president had the win in the bag in 2020.
"Sometimes I wonder if that false sense of security might have hurt us back in 2020."
Nonetheless, it will likely be tough to get a full picture of how well Republicans’ early voting strategy has paid off until after Election Day.
According to Georgia Votes, Hispanic voters make up the largest share of those who voted early in 2024 but did not vote at all in 2020, making up 37.6% of that number.
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The state has broken its own early turnout records already. (Reuters/Jayla Whitfield-Anderson)
That’s followed by Asian voters at 33.7%, Black voters at 19.1% and White voters at 17.7%.
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Roughly 72% of people who voted early in 2024 also did so in 2020 — about 2.6 million people.
About 8.3%, just over 305,000 people, voted early in 2024 after voting on Election Day in 2020.
