InsiderAdvantage: A Breakdown of Georgia’s Record-breaking Midterm Election Numbers
Thursday, December 1st, 2022
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The 2022 midterm general election was record-breaking in Georgia – the 3.96 million voters casting their ballot was the highest-turnout midterm general election in the state’s history. And, on top of that, the election saw increases in participation from almost every demographic group, including significant turnout by newly registered voters and disenfranchised voters who were alienated by doubts about election integrity in 2020.
The 3.96 million voters narrowly beat the previous 2018 midterm general record by about 15,000 votes, according to an election analysis by Greater Georgia – the state’s conservative voter registration and mobilization group.
“With every election since the passage of SB 202, Georgia voters have broken turnout records at the ballot box and proven what we’ve said all along: that Georgia’s new election integrity laws make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” said Kelly Loeffler, Greater Georgia Chairwoman and former U.S. Senator. “Not only did every Georgian see few issues at the polls and quick results on Election night; we also saw incredible participation from newly registered voters and disenfranchised voters.”
Loeffler said Greater Georgia will continue working to bring these citizens back to the polls through the December 6th runoff election for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat. “We want to make sure that every voter knows that their vote will count, and their voice will be heard.”
According to the analysis, almost 2.3 million voters cast their votes early in-person in this year’s midterm general, representing a 20 percent increase over 2018. In fact, the numbers show that early-in person voting became the favored vote method this year in Georgia, representing 57 percent of the votes cast. This is up from 48 percent in 2018.
The state saw a 12 percent increase over 2018 in absentee voting – with about 250,000 Georgians voting absentee in this year’s midterm general. Absentee voting represented only 6 percent of the total vote share – the same as it did in 2018.While over 1.4 million voters cast their ballots on Election Day, in-person was down 21 percent from 2018, and represented 36 percent of the total vote share for this election – down from 2018 when Election Day votes comprised 46 percent of the vote.
According to the analysis, of the 339,000 conservative voters who voted in the November 2020 general election but did not vote in the January 2021 runoff election, 142,219, or about 42 percent, came back out to vote in this year’s midterm general. The report also shows that 94,346 voters were first-time voters. And of these first-time voters, about 40,000, or 42 percent, are projected to be conservative voters.
The majority of voters in the 2022 general election were women, although they became a slightly smaller percentage of the vote share compared to 2018. In this year’s midterm general, 55 percent of voters were female, and 45 percent were male, compared to 2018 when 56 percent of voters were female and 44 percent were male.
Each demographic group participated at roughly the same rates in 2022 as they did in 2018, and the majority of the voters continue to be White. The notable exception to this is Black voters, who came out in smaller numbers compared to 2018. According to the analysis, White voters were 65 percent of the vote this November, Black voters were 28 percent, Hispanic were 2.7 percent, Asian were 2.6 percent, and “Other” voters were 1.9 percent. The number of White voters increased by 3 percent, Black decreased by 2 percent, Hispanic increased by 4 percent, and Asian increased by 17 percent.