Georgia Just Smashed Its Early-Voting Record. So Much for "Jim Crow in the 21st Century"
A record 188,667 Georgians voted in person on the first day of early voting, up 40% from 2022, under the election-integrity rules critics said would deny people the vote. Secure elections and high turnout go together.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS OPINION | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | October 15, 2026 | 6-min read Remember when Georgia's election-integrity law was supposed to keep people from voting? On March 26, 2021, then-President Joe Biden called Georgia's election law "an un-American law to deny people the right to vote" and declared, "This is Jim Crow in the 21st century" [1]. On Tuesday, Georgians answered. On the first day of early voting for this year's midterms, 188,667 of them cast ballots in person, shattering the state's midterm record by more than 53,000 voters [2]. In our view, that number should retire the "voter suppression" talking point for good, and it should remind every party that confidence in elections is earned by rules voters trust. Key Takeaways Georgia recorded 188,667 in-person early votes on Oct. 13, up 40% from 134,962 on the first day in 2022 and more than double the 70,849 of 2018 [2]. Another 10,267 absentee ballots had already been accepted [2]. Nationally, more than 4 million Americans had voted early by Wednesday, breaking records in many states, according to Spectrum News [3]. North Carolina's