Georgia passes 3.1 million votes by midmorning as Fulton plans to rescan 1,069 early ballots

More than 3.1 million Georgians had voted by late Tuesday morning, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at his first Election Day briefing. That count includes early votes, mail ballots and more than 300,000 ballots cast in person on Tuesday. He said turnout appeared to be running ahead of the same point in the 2022 midterm.

Three other issues will shape how Georgia counts its votes tonight and in the days after. Fulton County plans to re-tabulate 1,069 early ballots, pending board approval, after two scanner problems during early voting. The paper ballots that voters print at the polls still carry QR codes, because lawmakers delayed a ban on counting them. And a new state law requires a full hand recount if certain top state races are decided by 0.5 percentage points or less.

This story explains each of those issues and what voters still need to know before polls close at 7 p.m. It does not report or project any results. Polls are open in Georgia until 7 p.m. Eastern time.

What the secretary of state said at 10 a.m.

Raffensperger said statewide turnout reached 3,137,312 ballots shortly before 10 a.m., according to CBS News Atlanta. More than 300,000 of those were cast on Tuesday morning. About 2.8 million Georgians voted during the early voting period, which ended on Friday, Oct. 30, Atlanta News First reported.

Reports of the office's forecast for the rest of the day differ slightly. Atlanta News First's live blog quoted the office as expecting more than 1 million Election Day votes. A separate Atlanta News First story put the expected figure at about 1.2 million. Either way, the office expects most Election Day voting to happen after the morning rush.

Raffensperger also gave an update on polling places. He reported no late openings in Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Bibb or Clayton counties. One precinct in Mitchell County, in southwest Georgia, opened 10 minutes late, he said.

He was asked about the federal Justice Department monitors sent to watch voting in Georgia. He said the monitors were familiar with Georgia's rules and that their presence had not disrupted voting. Our earlier story on the DOJ election monitor program explains where monitors were sent and what state law lets them do.

His last message was for voters who arrive late in the day. "Polls close at 7 p.m., and if you're in line by 7 p.m., just remember, stay in line," Raffensperger said. "You will be allowed to vote."

How early voting compared with 2022

Georgia's early vote broke the state's midterm record before early voting even ended. On Thursday, Oct. 29, the secretary of state's office said that 2,294,275 voters had cast in-person early ballots as of 1:35 p.m. That passed the 2,289,951 in-person early votes cast in the whole 2022 early voting period. The office also said it had accepted 108,251 absentee ballots by then.

In 2022, Georgia's total of ballots cast before Election Day, including mail ballots, was 2,504,956, the Georgia Sun reported at the time. This year's total of about 2.8 million is roughly 300,000 higher.

2022 in-person early votes, full period

2.29

2026 in-person early votes, through Oct. 29

2.29

2022 all ballots before Election Day

2.5

2026 all ballots before Election Day (approx.)

2.8

Source: Georgia Secretary of State, Georgia Sun, Atlanta News First

Show the numbers

Measure	Ballots (millions)
2022 in-person early votes, full period	2.29
2026 in-person early votes, through Oct. 29	2.29
2022 all ballots before Election Day	2.5
2026 all ballots before Election Day (approx.)	2.8

High early turnout does not tell anyone who is winning. Georgia voters do not register by party, and the state does not report how anyone voted until polls close. A larger early vote can also mean that some people who would have voted on Tuesday simply voted sooner.

The state's office also reported that just over 82,000 Hispanic and Latino voters had cast early ballots statewide, CBS News Atlanta said. In Gwinnett County, they made up about 7% of early voters.

Why Fulton County is re-tabulating 1,069 early ballots

Fulton County, Georgia's most populous county, plans to re-tabulate 1,069 early ballots tonight if its election board agrees. The problem came from two scanners that failed during early voting. Fulton's elections director, Nadine Williams, described both incidents in an email to the secretary of state's office, which Atlanta News First obtained.

The paper ballots from both sites are what make a fix possible. The question is how to get them into the official tally. For the Mechanicsville scanner, state voting systems staff advised against uploading its memory cards because of possible data corruption, according to the county memo described by CBS News Atlanta, so those 361 ballots would be rescanned. For the Conley scanner, officials would first move its memory cards to another scanner to finish closing out the results, and would rescan the 708 paper ballots only if that fails.

The procedures were discussed with the secretary of state's voting systems staff, but they still need approval from the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections. If approved, the work would start between 7 and 7:30 p.m., after polls close. "These actions will still occur within view of the public and a closer view of the process will be available for poll watchers and individuals permitted within the restricted area at the tabulation center," she wrote.

Raffensperger said Tuesday morning that he did not expect the rescans to delay results. "It's one of those things that can happen, and we always have procedures in place," he said.

Fulton's election process has drawn national attention since 2020. That history means even small problems there tend to draw close scrutiny. The 1,069 ballots are a very small share of the county's early vote.

Why the ballots still have QR codes

When Georgians vote in person, they make their choices on a touchscreen. The machine then prints a paper ballot. That paper shows the voter's choices in plain text, but it also carries a QR code. Scanners read the QR code, not the text, to count the vote.

That is what critics object to. Voters cannot read a QR code, so they cannot check for themselves that it matches the text they see. Critics have argued the system is open to hacking or error, Capitol Beat reported. State election officials say the system is safe and accurate.

In 2024, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 189. Section 7 of that law said QR codes could not be used to count ballots after July 1, 2026. Instead, the printed text would be used for counts, recounts and audits, Atlanta News First explained.

But lawmakers did not pay for a replacement or pick one. In January, Raffensperger told a budget committee that no money had been set aside. "The General Assembly has not funded a single dollar to upgrade the system. If you do fund that system, we could talk about alternatives," he said, according to Capitol Beat. Republican lawmakers blamed Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, for the lack of a plan, and he blamed them, Capitol Beat reported.

The regular session ended without a fix. County election directors said it was too late to switch systems before November. So Gov. Brian Kemp called lawmakers back for a special session in June. They passed Senate Bill 3EX, largely along party lines, and Kemp signed it.

1. 2024SB 189 bans counting ballots by QR code after July 1, 2026
2. January 2026Raffensperger tells lawmakers no money has been provided for a new system
3. Spring 2026The regular session ends without a replacement or a delay
4. June 2026Special session passes SB 3EX, moving the ban to Jan. 1, 2028
5. Nov. 3, 2026Georgians vote with QR code ballots
6. Jan. 31, 2027Committee report on a hand-marked paper ballot system is due
7. Jan. 1, 2028The QR code ban takes effect

Source: Atlanta News First, Capitol Beat

SB 3EX did three main things. It moved the QR code deadline to Jan. 1, 2028. It created a committee to recommend standards for a new statewide voting system based on hand-marked paper ballots, with a report due Jan. 31, 2027. And it added a new hand recount rule for close races.

The new hand recount rule

Under SB 3EX, if a qualifying contest in the general election is decided by 0.5 percentage points or less, the secretary of state must order a full hand recount. The rule covers races for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state school superintendent, and the insurance, agriculture and labor commissioners. It applies only when that race is the first or second contest on the ballot, Atlanta News First reported. Under the text of SB 3EX, the secretary of state must order the recount no later than two business days after the results are certified. The law also says the state must repay counties for their reasonable costs of these recounts.

That could matter this year. The final public polls showed a very close race for governor between Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson. Our earlier story on Georgia's final polls has the details, and the Georgia governor race page tracks the contest. Capitol Beat noted that the lieutenant governor candidates, Democratic state Sen. Josh McLaurin and Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal, would also get an automatic hand recount if their race ends within 0.5 points.

The new rule does not cover federal races. That means it does not apply to the U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff$ and Republican Rep. Mike Collins$. The Georgia Senate race page has more on that contest.

An earlier Senate version of the bill would have required hand recounts of the top two races in every election, including races for president and U.S. Senate. Lawmakers narrowed it after critics said hand counts are slow and less accurate than machine counts. "So it's very narrowly defined," said Rep. Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia, who chaired the House committee that reviewed the bill.

The debate over Georgia's voting system

The fight over QR codes did not end with SB 3EX. People on different sides still disagree about what Georgia should do before 2028. The perspectives below set out the main views in the words of the people who hold them.

Those who want the QR codes gone say the delay leaves voters without a way to check their own ballots. "I think there's going to be dissatisfaction in the fact that we are still on the QR codes for the 2026 election," said Garland Favorito, cofounder of the group VoterGA, Capitol Beat reported. He and others were also unhappy that the hand recount rule left out federal races.

Republicans who backed the delay argued that the state had no workable choice so close to the election. Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, warned that without the bill, "then we may be hand-counting ballots in 159 counties in the state of Georgia. That is a high probability."

Many Democrats said the system was not flawed and that the special session was a waste of time and money. "You just cannot build a healthy democracy by catering to people who will just never accept the results of an election if it does not favor them," said Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn. Voting rights groups also opposed wider hand counts. "Please do not subject Georgia to this," Kristin Nabers, the Georgia director of All Voting is Local, told a House committee.

Raffensperger has supported a different kind of check. After the 2024 election, his office used text-recognition software to read the printed text on ballots and compare it with the QR code count. That audit found a nearly identical match to the election night count, Capitol Beat reported. Kemp's January budget proposal included $1.8 million for a similar check after this November's election.

What voters should know before 7 p.m.

If you are in line at 7 p.m., stay in line. Everyone in line when polls close is allowed to vote.

Check your polling place. Election Day voters must vote at their assigned precinct. Voters can look it up on the state's My Voter Page or call their county elections office.

Watch out for text scams. Fulton County officials warned voters on Tuesday about text message scams. Voters should check polling details through the My Voter Page or their county's official website, not through links in unexpected texts.

Provisional ballots are a backup. Voters who believe they are registered but are not found on the rolls can ask for a provisional ballot. It counts if county officials confirm the voter's eligibility within three days after Election Day, CBS News Atlanta reported. Voters without an acceptable photo ID can also cast a provisional ballot, but they must show ID to their county elections office by the deadline for it to count.

Our national guide to poll closing times and mail ballot deadlines covers the rest of the country.

What happens after polls close

Counties will begin reporting results after 7 p.m. Early votes and mail ballots are usually among the first results reported. In Fulton County, the 1,069 early ballots will be re-tabulated in public view, if the county election board approves the plan.

Some results may not be final on election night. Provisional ballots can be confirmed for three days. If a covered state race ends within 0.5 points, the new hand recount rule will apply, and that count will take more time. A close result on election night is not a sign that anything has gone wrong. It is how the process is designed to work.

Election problems happen in other states too. Our story on scanner failures in Westchester County, New York, and flooding in Florida and Utah covers other disruptions reported on Tuesday. For how 567 Politics reports on elections, see our methodology.

Differing perspectives

How should Georgia count in-person ballots after this election?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Keep the current machines until a replacement is ready

  Who holds it: Republican legislators who passed SB 3EX, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp

  The majority that passed SB 3EX chose a planned, funded switch over a rushed one in an election year. The law keeps today's equipment until Jan. 1, 2028. It sets up a committee to write standards for a statewide system based on hand-marked paper ballots, so lawmakers can plan funding and purchasing for 2028. It adds a full hand recount only for top state races decided by 0.5 points or less, with the state repaying counties.

  In their words: Office of Gov. Brian Kemp (SB 3EX as signed) ↗

• Stop counting by QR code as soon as possible

  Who holds it: VoterGA and other critics of Georgia's touchscreen system

  Critics say voters cannot read the QR code on their printed ballot, so they cannot confirm that it records what they chose, and they argue the system is open to hacking and error. VoterGA cofounder Garland Favorito said many people would be unhappy that Georgia is "still on the QR codes for the 2026 election." Critics also objected that the new hand recount rule leaves out federal races.

  In their words: Capitol Beat ↗

• The current system is accurate; check it with audits

  Who holds it: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

  Raffensperger says Georgia's voting system is safe and accurate. He notes that each ballot can include 16 or 20 races, which makes counting every one by hand slow and costly. He backs audits that use text-recognition software to read the printed text and compare it with the QR code count. That check, first used after 2024, nearly matched the election night count. He told lawmakers they have not funded a new system.

  In their words: Capitol Beat ↗