More Gwinnett County voters cast ballots in the 2020 general election than ever before, county elections data shows.
After the election was certified Monday, 416,458 ballots had been counted. The last record, set in the 2018 gubernatorial race, was 338,125. The number of voters increased 25% between the 2016 general election and this year’s election; 332,149 people cast ballots that year.
Despite the large increase in the number of voters, the county’s turnout rate was slightly down, from 77% in 2016 to 71.6% in 2020. The county’s total number of registered voters increased by 35% over those four years, going from about 431,000 to more than 581,000. Georgia introduced automatic voter registration in 2016, registering all adult U.S. citizens to vote when they get a Georgia driver’s license unless they opt out. That helped grow voter rolls statewide, as no additional effort was needed to become a registered voter.
Anticipated heavy turnout and the COVID-19 pandemic led Gwinnett County to make voting available in more ways than ever this year. Early voting was expanded to eight locations, nine of which were open 12 hours a day, seven days a week for the three-week early voting period. The county elections office was open nine hours a day, seven days a week. Absentee ballots could be mailed in or dropped in secure drop boxes across the county. Between mail-in absentee ballots, drop boxes and early voting, 80% of voters cast a ballot before Election Day — more than the entire 2016 turnout.
