Nearly 10 percent of Laurens County voters have voted early

Election Day is only two Tuesdays away. Though midterm elections notoriously see less participation than presidential elections, Tuesday, November 3, will play a large part in how Georgia’s political scene and the national political landscape will look going forward.

On the morning of Monday, October 19, a small group of people made their way into the Laurens County Board of Elections & Registration to cast their ballots. They were greeted by two signs outside the couple doors that read: no callphones beyond this point and vote here.

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In Laurens County, participation in the early voting period -which ends on Friday, October 30– has been solid, if not spectacular to this point. After a week of early voting, nearly 10 percent of the county’s registered voters have cast ballots, according to data from the Office of Georgia’s Secretary of State. 

Of the 2,951 early votes that have been cast, over 200 have been cast by mail. The votes are broken down as follows: 54% of the votes have been cast by voters 65 years old and older, while 29 percent have been from voters between the ages of 50-64. Voters ages 40-49, traditionally an active voting block on Election Day, have contributed 7 percent of the current tally. 

The first week turnout is 14 percent lower than what Laurens County voters did during the 2022 election. During that equally important and groundbreaking election, 3,4345 votes were cast during the first week of early voting. 

Georgia experienced nearly 200,000 votes cast during the first week of the early voting period. Laurens County, though 43rd on Georgia’s registered voter by county list, has 36,000 of its 51,000 residents registered to vote, so there are potentially thousands more votes to be cast during the final two weeks before Election Day.