There are amazing numbers to be found on Georgiavotes.com, a website that every day analyses voter data available from the Georgia secretary of state’s office. As of Tuesday, according to the website, 893,192 voters had requested absentee ballots for the June 9th party and non-partisan primaries. That is more than the approximately 887,000 total votes cast in Georgia’s 2016 primaries.
At this point in the 2016 primary season, only 26,638 had applied to vote by mail. Incredibly, the total turnout for the 2020 combined primary is 3,253% higher. Here is the latest breakdown by party:
382,041 (42.8%) people have applied for Democratic ballots.
480,942 (53.8%) people have applied for Republican ballots.
30,209 (3.4%) people have applied for Non-Partisan ballots.
Absentee ballot information regarding who chooses a Republican, Democrat or non-partisan ballot gives political campaigns and their consultants vital information— especially this week when Georgians will be increasingly mailing in their ballots. This information is used by campaigns to target potential voters who have received absentee ballot request forms but haven’t turned them in. Campaigns can also see who has already mailed their ballots in. So with personal candidate contact with voters almost impossible, elections will be won and lost through bombarding voters with candidate reminders via mail, phone text and robocall. (And getting out yard signs to boost name recognition, especially for little-known candidates like those in non-partisan judicial races, are very important.)
Unfortunately, Fulton County’s elections operation is running way behind in processing ballots because of a COVID-19 outbreak where one election worker died, another was hospitalized and other workers couldn’t come in until the workplace was cleaned and sanitized.
