A record number of Georgia voters cast ballots in presidential primary
The results aren't official yet, but vote tallies from the Secretary of State's office show a record number of Georgia voters cast ballots in this year's presidential primary.
More than 2 million voters cast ballots in the Tuesday primary, narrowly topping the 2008 record fueled by Barack Obama's historic candidacy.
In that contest, about 50,000 more Democrats cast ballots than Republicans. In this one, though, Republicans far outnumbered their counterparts: Roughly 1.3 million GOP votes were cast, compared to about 760,000 Democrat ballots.
The percentage of active registered voters who cast ballots, though, did not exceed the high water mark of 45 percent turnout rate that was set in 2008.
The results will not likely be certified until next week.
Here's my stab at a graph of the last few decades of presidential primaries in Georgia:
| PPP Total Turnout | ||||||
| Year | Republican | Democrat | Total # of Votes | # of Active Registered Voters | Turnout | Date |
| 2016 | 1,292,690* | 761,132* | 2,053,822* | 4,707,512* | 43.628% | 1-Mar-16 |
| 2012 | 901,470 | 139,273 | 1,040,743 | 5,353,013 | 19.442% | 6-Mar-12 |
| 2008 | 963,541 | 1,060,851 | 2,024,392 | 4,482,551 | 45.162% | 5-Feb-08 |
| 2004 | 161,374 | 626,813 | 788,187 | 3,943,161 | 19.989% | 2-Mar-04 |
| 2000 | 643,188 | 284,431 | 927,619 | 3,442,455 | 26.946% | 7-Mar-00 |
| 1996 | 654,170 | 95,103 | 749,273 | 3,433,747 | 21.821% | 5-Mar-96 |
| 1992 | 453,987 | 454,631 | 908,618 | 2,732,332 | 33.254% | 3-Mar-92 |
| 1988 | 400,928 | 622,752 | 1,023,680 | 2,574,296 | 39.765% | 8-Mar-88 |
*Denotes unofficial results.
Source: Georgia Secretary of State's Office.
About the Author
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
