Nearly 225,000 Fulton County voters cast their ballots early ahead of Tuesday’s election, the highest number of early votes in the county for a gubernatorial contest.
In 2014, about 88,000 people voted early for the governor’s race. In the 2016 presidential contest, more than 250,000 people voted early.
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Through Friday, the end of early voting, 224,653 people had cast their ballots. An additional 15,000 had also returned absentee ballots.
Richard Barron, the Fulton director of registration and elections, said the turnout was better than he expected, though not surprising. He said combined with turnout on Tuesday, he thought at least 55 percent of registered voters might cast ballots. Before this election, the highest turnout for a gubernatorial race since 2000 was 54 percent of voters.
“Reaching this number of early voters supports our opening many locations to provide our residents with an opportunity to choose when and where they want to vote,” Barron said in a statement.
Fulton County had 20 early voting sites and 11 outreach locations at college campuses and senior centers.
