Georgia is breaking records for turnout on day one of early voting, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says. Hundreds of thousands of Georgians already have gone to the polls to cast their votes for the 2024 election, less than eight hours after early voting began on Tuesday. 

The chief operating officer for Mr. Raffensperger’s office, Gabe Sterling, posted on X Tuesday afternoon that more than 250,000 people had voted by 4 p.m., which is more than 5 percent of total votes cast in the 2020 general election in Georgia. The previous record for the first day of early voting was four years ago, when just about 136,000 turned out on the first day. 

“As of 4pm we have crossed the quarter million mark with 251,899 votes cast. Spectacular turnout. We are running out of adjectives for this. Proud of our elections team … the counties great work, and most importantly, the voters doing their job and showing up,” Mr. Sterling wrote on X Tuesday. 

The average wait time for voters to be checked in to vote across the state was less than one minute, the secretary of state’s office says. Mr. Sterling described the day one turnout as a “blow out.”

“Hats off to our counties and the voters who are turning out. HUGE!” Mr. Sterling wrote on X earlier in the afternoon. On the first day of early voting in 2020, just over 136,000 votes were cast. 

Early and mail-in voting has been robust so far across the country, though Georgia — which could be decided by just a few thousand votes this year — may be a bellwether for voters’ heightened interest in the race. 

According to data compiled by NBC News, nearly 5.5 million votes have either been cast in-person or by mail so far this year in the lead-up to the presidential election on November 5. 

Democrats have an overwhelming advantage in both early and mail-in votes so far, especially across the battleground states. In Pennsylvania, nearly 70 percent of ballots cast so far have been cast by Democrats. In Michigan, 57 percent of votes have come from registered Democrats. In Wisconsin, Democrats have a two-to-one advantage over Republicans in early and mail-in voting. North Carolina is more evenly split, with 37 percent of the vote coming from Democrats, 36 percent coming from independents, and 27 percent coming from Republicans. 

The deficit is leading some Republicans to seemingly panic about their party’s odds at keeping up with their opponents. “VOTE EARLY. When you vote early your vote is BANKED,” a senior advisor to President Trump, Stephen Miller, wrote on X on Sunday. “Resources can be focused on turning out the rest of the vote. And we don’t have to worry about broken machines on Election Day. Get everyone you know to VOTE EARLY.”