Fewer than 10% of Fulton voters hit the polls early

The early votes are all in and offer an early peek at turnout numbers in local elections across metro Atlanta before the final ballots roll in on Election Day.

Tuesday’s elections will determine who holds the top offices in metro cities, including a hotly contested mayoral race in Atlanta which pits former Mayor Kasim Reed against City Council President Felicia Moore and a dozen other candidates. A runoff between the top two candidates is set for Nov. 30 if no one gets more than 50% of the vote.

Voters in DeKalb, Cobb and Fulton counties will also decide whether to keep paying a penny sales tax over five years for capital projects in county and city school districts.

Local elections this year will test Georgia’s new voting law passed by the General Assembly in March. The law resulted in altered early voting hours in some counties, more stringent ID requirements and deadlines for absentee voting, and limited ballot drop boxes.

Democrats and voting rights groups largely denounced the new law for its potential to lower access to the polls and dampen turnout. Republicans hailed the legislation for securing future elections, following false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

A body of research from Georgia political scientists says that the restrictions may not significantly harm turnout. Studies indicate that voters who want to vote will find a way to cast their ballots despite more arduous rules.

But one of Fulton County’s top election officials said last week that turnout appears to be low. Fewer than 10% of the county’s registered voters had cast their ballots by the end of the early voting period.

“In the lead-up to this election, usually there’s kind of a buzz in the office… this is the quietest municipal election we’ve had in terms of buzz in the air,” said Richard Barron, elections head for the county.

Barron said the usual rule of thumb is to expect twice the amount of early voters to show up on Election Day — but those industry assumptions don’t take into account burned-out voters changing their methods of casting ballots while dealing with a pandemic.

“It’s hard to know if that historical trend is going to follow through this time,” Barron said.

Almost 13,500 people cast early ballots on Friday, the final day of early voting. That was far more than any other day of the period. The elections department expected a rush of votes in the final early voting days, according to spokesperson Regina Waller.

Fewer than 2.5% of registered Cobb County voters cast their ballots by the end of early voting, said elections director Janine Eveler. But some precincts in Marietta, the site of the county’s only contested mayoral race, are seeing turnout as high as 25%.

Local elections without gubernatorial, presidential or high-profile congressional races on ballots tend to result in lower turnout. Barron said he expects higher turnout in Atlanta because of its hot mayoral race.

Fulton’s voter turnout hit 20% by the end of Election Day in 2017, the last time Atlanta mayoral candidates faced off in a general election. About 68% of the 130,000 of the 2017 votes came in on Election Day.

Early turnout totals

Fulton, DeKalb and Cobb counties recorded more than 100,000 early votes. The three counties received more than 19,000 absentee ballots.

Numbers were not available online for Gwinnett County. Its cities are conducting their own elections given the absence of countywide offices and referendums on ballots this year.

Fulton reported 74,222 early votes, 8,671 absentee ballots returned thus far.