More Georgians voted, but not as many as projected

While falling far short of some projections, the percentage of Georgia voters who turned out during Tuesday’s historic presidential election was slightly higher than it was in the last election in 2004.

So far — and there are still absentee ballots outstanding — about 66.9 percent of the registered voters in Georgia cast ballots in the presidential election, according to figures from the Secretary of State’s office. That is more than the 66.3 percent of total voters who cast ballots during the last presidential election in 2004.

Turnout went up 0.6 percentage points.

It may not seem like much, but considering the large increase in voter registration this year, the percentage increase in turnout shows that voters really went to the polls. Almost 567,000, or 17.3 percent more Georgians cast ballots Tuesday than did in 2004, according to data from the Secretary of State’s office.

Georgia added about half a million new voters to the rolls this year, compared to 2004.

About 2 million, or 53 percent of those who voted this year, did so before Election Day, officials said.

Michael McDonald of George Mason University estimated that nationally, turnout would reach 64.1 percent, the highest since 65.7 percent in 1908.

Election officials in some Georgia counties had predicted turnout of 80 percent or more. Mark Henderson, spokesman for Fulton County’s election office, expressed surprise at Fulton’s total turnout early Wednesday, which appeared to be about 60 percent. “We had 77 percent of registered voters vote four years ago,” he said.

He thinks many people who were going to vote did so early and others may have stayed away, fearing long Election Day lines. Instead, lines were often nonexistent Tuesday.

“My fiancee went to vote at 6:50 [p.m.] and there was no one voting,” he said.

Gwinnett County had voter turnout of 69 percent, said county spokesman Joe Sorenson. Both Fulton and Gwinnett counties said they saw an early push of voters on Election Day, but that lunch and after-work crowds never materialized.

“Could it be that people were afraid of the long lines they saw?” Sorenson wondered, referring to advance voting.