Georgia Early Voting Dispels ID Law Disenfranchisement Predictions

Myth vs. Reality.

According to state elections officials, 688,369 Georgians, of which 33 percent were black, had already voted in the presidential contest as of Thursday.

Should the preliminary rate of participation remain steady through the close of polling on November 6, this year’s election will be recorded as the single largest black voter turn out event in state history.

The state had one of the nation’s earliest voter ID laws and the gloom and doom disenfranchisement predictions began immediately. Voter participation by African Americans hit historic highs two years after it passed (for the 2008 election) and now appears on track to outpace those numbers. This despite the fact that overall early voting numbers in Georgia are down from 2008.