Fulton voters on pace to exceed turnout records

Fulton County officials are reporting massive turnout that will likely break records by the end of the election cycle.

As of Tuesday night, more than 250,000 of Fulton’s 797,000 registered voters had cast a ballot, Fulton elections head Richard Barron told county commissioners Wednesday.

Of that, he said, 161,000 people had voted early in person (23,000 of which have done so in the unique megasite at State Farm Arena) and more than 88,000 had voted by mail.

Already, that puts the county with at a turnout of 31%. He said enthusiasm from voters puts Fulton on track to have 80% of voters who have cast ballots early.

He said that means Fulton is 40% of the way to the expected turnout of 620,000. That number would mean a final turnout of 80%, which would surpass the previous record of 74% set in 2008.

The 19 days of early voting continue until Oct. 30. Voters can now avoid lines by checking the county’s live tracker. Because there were 91 polling place changes affecting a third of voters, Barron is encouraging people to check that they go to the correct precinct on Election Day by confirming at https://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do.