Jimmy Carter votes for Harris amid record early turnout in Georgia

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The 2024 election is already turning out to be a record year in Georgia, where the record for the number of ballots cast on the first day of early voting was shattered Tuesday.

One such early voter was former President Jimmy Carter, who voted by mail Wednesday, the Carter Center confirmed. The Georgia peanut farmer-turned commander in chief turned 100 earlier this month and said earlier this year his final goal was to vote for Kamala Harris for president.

According to public data from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office, 328,753 ballots were cast in the Peach State on Tuesday, nearly doubling the previous record for first day early voting of roughly 160,000 in 2020. The number represents a combination of in-person voting (which accounting for roughly 95% of the total) and returned absentee and mail-in ballots.

Breakdown of the results shows the highest numbers of voters are women (54.1%) and those in their 60s, with Georgians aged 60 to 69 casting 117,548 votes over the Tuesday and Wednesday so far, the largest share of any age group (as voters over age 25 are grouped by four-year age clusters, voters aged 65-69 are the single highest bracket with 62,273, or 11% of the total, votes cast). The lowest turnout was held by those voters over the age of 84 and voters between the ages of 25 and 29, who only accounted for 1.7% of ballots cast so far.

"Georgia voters shattered records yesterday and came out in record numbers because they know Georgia’s voting system is secure, efficient, and accurate," Raffensperger said in a statement to The National News Desk. "That’s why we’re at the top for election integrity and voter convenience. We’re battle tested and ready to serve every legal Georgia voter"

"I have to say we are all pretty happy with yesterday’s turnout and the great work of the counties and the performance of our voting system," Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Secretary of State's Office, said on X Wednesday morning.

Raffensberger and Sterling's words come not just as reassurances of a secure electoral infrastructure but also as a possible bulwark against election deniers and truthers, as both men faced severe backlash from then-President Donald Trump and his supporters following the 2020 election as they opposed his attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia (an act for which he still faces eight criminal charges).

The surge in voting also comes as a federal judge blocked a controversial rule implemented this year by Georgia's State Election Board -- which was recently reshuffled with three Trump allies on the five-member organization -- which would require all ballots to be hand counted as well as machine counted. Legal experts feared this rule could cause chaos and significant disruptions in the vote count and certification process and open avenues for election deniers to question or dismiss results in the state.

In a ruling late Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, that the hand count rule "is too much, too late" and blocked its enforcement while he considers the merits of the case.

McBurney on Monday had ruled in a separate case that "no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance." While they are entitled to inspect the conduct of an election and to review related documents, he wrote, "any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so."

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Editor's Note: The Associated Press contributed to this story