Live coverage: Georgians head to the polls for last day of voting in 2024 presidential election

Georgia Democratic party chair U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams says results could be late

The mood was festive at the Democratic Party of Georgia’s election night watch party as hopeful but anxious Democrats watched the results trickle in from across the state.

The crowd continued to build inside a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta after most polls closed in Georgia. Cheers could be heard when Vice President Kamala Harris was shown in the lead in other states on large screens broadcasting CNN.

Around 8 p.m., Congresswoman Nikema Williams, an Atlanta Democrat who also chairs the state party, took the stage to celebrate the end of a hard-fought campaign while cautioning supporters that they may not leave the party tonight knowing who won.

“I want to remind everyone to stay patient while our democracy is at work tonight and over the next couple of days,” Williams said. “We may not know the results of this election for a few days, y’all, and that’s OK. We want accuracy.

“We’re counting every vote and ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard. The most important thing is to keep the faith and know that our democracy is strong,” she added.

She also told supporters that she expects former President Donald Trump to declare himself the winner, regardless of the results.

“But y’all, we’ve seen this show before, and now it’s on repeat, especially here in Georgia, and we’re not going to fall for it,” she said. 

DeKalb County precincts latest to receive Georgia bomb threats

Several DeKalb County polling places became the latest target of suspected bomb threats on Election Day, following a day of bogus threats state election officials blamed on Russian sources.

DeKalb County reported at  6:30 p.m. Tuesday that law enforcement was conducting bomb sweeps at five voting precincts. Since then, the five polling places have reopened to voters and will stay open later than the statewide 7 p.m. closure of polls on election night.

The targeted DeKalb voting sites are: New Bethel AME Church in Lithonia; New Life Community Center in  Decatur; North DeKalb Senior Center in Chamblee, Reid H. Cofer Library in Tucker and Wesley Chapel Library in Decatur.

“Every asset that we have will be deployed to ensure that every citizen who wants to vote will be given that opportunity and every vote cast will be counted,” DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond said in a statement.

Several other polling places in Georgia  also remained open past 7 p.m. after bogus bomb threats caused brief interruptions.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday afternoon that the bogus threats came from Russia, pinning their motive on a desire to “destabilize America.” 

In Fulton, voting hours were extended to 7:45 p.m. at Northwood Elementary School and Etris Darnell Community Center. Court ordered extensions kept the doors open late at several other Fulton and Gwinnett County polls.

Georgia GOP chair confident in Trump victory as polls close

A hotel ballroom in Buckhead was mostly empty about a half hour before Georgia polls closed at 7 p.m. except for some reporters and a whole lot of chairs. Soon, it will be filled with the GOP faithful hoping for a win for former President Donald Trump.

Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon said he’s optimistic about today’s results.

“It looks like the trend that was established during early voting has continued,” he said. “We’re seeing very strong performances in rural Georgia counties, in exurban counties around Atlanta and other major metro areas around the state, so Republican turnout looks solid.”

McKoon said he disagrees with the ruling of the federal judge who rejected his party’s attempts to block weekend absentee ballots.

“The judge and I see this differently,” he said. “I don’t think that it is fair or just or perhaps not even legal to, on the final day of voting, for county employees to make a decision in Fulton County that, hey, Republican turnout’s great, let’s open the doors for Saturday and Sunday voting.’”

McKoon said he expects Georgia’s results will come in early. Unlike 2020, he said he doesn’t think the loser will put up a fight.

“I believe that President Trump is going to win by such a margin that it will take it out of any kind of legal challenge or recount territory,” he said.

Potential Georgia bellwether Fayette County shows signs of trending bluer

Fayette County resident Chinte Palm said he does not spend much time immersed in politics, but he was inspired to vote on Tuesday afternoon for Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Palm, a first-time voter casting his ballot at the Liberty Baptist Church polling location in Fayetteville, said he plans to watch the election results as they are reported on election night.

“I know I don’t want to vote for Donald Trump,” the 46-year-old said. “I do understand the Republican Party. And I do appreciate some of their ideas on how they move forward on things. I just don’t think Trump is the guy.”

Fayette County had one of Georgia’s strongest early voting turnouts, as 68% of voters cast ballots before Election Day. 

Politicos have been closely watching Fayette as a potential bellwether county in Georgia. The county has been trending bluer than in the recent past, and in 2022, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker won in the suburb south of Atlanta by just 487 votes.

Fayetteville’s Jason Jacob also cast an Election Day vote for Harris, saying he believes Harris is more suitable for the powerful position than Trump. 

“I’m an independent, and first of all I vote on the person based on integrity and honesty. That’s one thing I do,” said the 60-year old retired military veteran. “I voted for Kamala Harris because she’s more honest and and I can believe what comes out her mouth more than the other guy.”

Jacob said he was following his routine Tuesday of waiting to vote until the day of the election. The voting process Tuesday was as quick and smooth as previous elections at the Liberty church precinct. 

Jacob said there was a notable sense of tension around the community because of the uncertainty about who will win the presidential contest.

 “I watched a lot of the news and in this election is kind of crazy,” he said. “It’s very tight and very crazy.”

Federal judge backs Georgia courts rejection of GOP bid to block weekend absentee ballots

A federal judge has rejected the GOP’s second attempt to block absentee ballots dropped off over the weekend in metro Atlanta counties from being counted, according to the nonprofit legal news site Lawfare.

The Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party filed the suit Sunday in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Georgia in Savannah after striking out in a Fulton County courtroom.

The lawsuit targeted Democratic-leaning counties where local election officials accepted absentee ballots over the weekend, specifically Chatham, Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Clarke and Clayton counties. The Republicans argued that counting these ballots would result in “disparate treatment of Georgia voters.”

But Judge Stan Baker, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, shot down those arguments, saying it would deprive voters of their rights.

“Even more concerning, I would only be invalidating votes from the select counties that plaintiffs have cherry-picked based on nothing more than the past political preferences of the citizens in those counties,” he said, according to Lawfare.

The conflict over the ballots started Saturday, when GOP officials cried foul. But Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is a Republican, said over the weekend it was legal for local election offices to accept absentee ballots after polls closed for in-person early voting Friday. A Fulton County judge agreed, rejecting the first lawsuit challenging the ballots in Fulton County.

North Fulton County is reliable GOP turf, but Harris and Stein also score votes

Fulton County is Georgia’s largest county and gives Democrats a huge number of votes, but Republicans can still run up the score in Fulton, particularly in the county’s more conservative north.

Joe Moriarty, who works in the film industry, recently moved to Atlanta, but came back to vote for Harris at Crosspointe Church near where he grew up in Roswell.

“I think some people in the suburbs, they think that the other guy’s looking out for them, when in reality, I don’t think that’s the case,” he said. “The way people talk, I think they relate more to Trump around here, but if you’re actually looking at the facts, then I think she’s more on the nail about what needs to be done.”

Moriarty said his top concerns were the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and reproductive rights.

“That should be a pretty general right for everybody, and for some reason it’s still being debated. It should just be a universal right for everybody, just to have control over your own body and your own choices,” he said.

But not all left-leaning Roswellians voted for Harris — 20-year-old Jillian T., who asked that her last name not be published, said she cast her first presidential ballot for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

She said the tipping point was the war in Gaza.

“I voted for Jill Stein because I don’t think that either of the other candidates, Harris or Trump, will be good for the economy or the war in Palestine,” she said.

“I don’t like that both Trump and Harris are united in support for Israel, so that’s kind of what tipped the scales for me,” she added.

After successfully fighting to keep socialist Claudia De La Cruz and independent candidate Cornell West off the ballot, Georgia Democrats are hoping young Palestine supporters like Jillian will hold their nose and vote for Harris, but Jillian said she’s resigned to four more years of Trump.

“I don’t really like him as a person, he kind of rose me the wrong way,” she said. “It won’t be the end of the world if he wins because he can’t run again, but it would be a little disappointing.”

Team allies are counting on voters like attorney Jay Smith, who said Trump is his man.

“I’m real concerned about inflation, the price of food and living expenses going up,” he said. “I’m concerned about immigration policies under the existing administration. I haven’t heard Kamala Harris articulate any real differences in how she would go about running things from President Biden. And I do continue to be concerned about national security in some of the issues we’re seeing outside the United States, and I think it’s important for the U.S. to have a firmer approach to matters and more energy on the international stage.”

Leila Singletary took an unusual path to Trump. She said it started in 2016, when she was a backer of Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic socialist who ran for president as an independent.

Singletary said she became disillusioned with the Democratic Party and the media after she said Sanders was treated unfairly in the primary.

“I witnessed what happened to Bernie, and I discovered the corruption of the media. I watched the Bernie blackout on liberal media, on MSNBC. I watched when he had a huge rally in California and they didn’t cover it, and how they covered Donald Trump incessantly, but I wasn’t interested in Donald Trump. And that’s all I could hear about from them,” she said.

Sanders has endorsed Harris and argued that Trump’s right-wing policies would be dangerous for the nation, but Singleton said her primary issue is foreign policy, and she believes Trump would be more likely to keep the nation out of war.

Georgia secretary of state blames bogus bomb threats on Russians

Some polling places in Georgia will stay open past 7 p.m. after bogus bomb threats caused brief interruptions.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Gwinnett County was also targeted after non-credible bomb threats caused two Fulton County precincts – Etris Community Center and Gullatt Elementary in Union City – to close for a short duration during the morning.

Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday that the bogus threats came from Russia, pinning their motive on a desire to “destabilize America.” 

“Georgia is not going to be intimidated. Russia has just decided they picked on the wrong Georgia. They need to pick on the other one in the Black Sea, because we’re not going to be intimidated,” he said this afternoon.

As of mid-afternoon, more than 700,000 people had voted Tuesday in Georgia, Raffensperger said.       

At that rate, the state is on track to have more than 1.1 million ballots cast today. That’s on top of the 4 million people who voted before Tuesday.

That could put the total voter turnout at around 5.15 million when it’s all said and done tonight, he said. That would be higher than the turnout in the 2020 presidential election when President Joe Biden narrowly defeated former President Donald Trump by less than 12,000 votes. 

“That’s really what the big news should be,” he said of the voter turnout. 

Georgia is expected to be one of the first battleground states to start posting election results tonight. 

Will fast-growing Forsyth County continue its leftward slide?

Forsyth County is in a similar situation as its neighbor to the west, Cherokee County, but with even faster population growth.

From 2000 to 2019, Forsyth saw its population grow from under 100,000 to just over 228,000, the fastest growth in the metro area, fueled by demand for high-paying tech jobs in Atlanta and north Fulton County. Residents are among the highest-educated and best-paid in the state, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The growth has also changed the county’s demographics – it went from 92% white in 2000 to about 70% today. At 5%, the portion of Black Forsyth residents is far lower than the state’s average of about 33%. The county is home to thriving Asian communities, and Asian Americans make up about 22% of Forsyth County compared with less than 5% statewide.

In 2012, just over 80% of Forsyth County residents voted for Republican Mitt Romney. In 2016, Trump earned 71%, and in 2020, the portion had fallen to about 66%. Turnout reached 69% in early voting here, and poll workers said turnout was moving steadily throughout the morning and early afternoon, with a line of more than 50 people waiting as soon as polls opened.

By lunchtime, the harmonic hum of electric cars backing into and out of parking spaces echoed through the fall haze in front of Calvary Chapel in southwest Forsyth. About a mile away from the polling place, a big electric billboard touts Trump’s endorsement of billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk.

Gas station worker Ram Gopal said if the rest of the county is anything like him and his associates, Forsyth will go ruby red this year.

“Everybody wants him to win,” he said. “You know, the incumbents, these Democrats, there is a border issue, policy issues, the wars, everybody’s talking about that. So everybody wants Trump back in.”

Pamela Garner said not everybody feels that way. Garner, who works for the Treasury Department, said she proudly cast her vote for Harris.

“For me, it’s a historical moment, again, as well as the Obama campaign,” she said. “I believe in a lot of things that she said she’s going to do for this country, and it’s about time we get somebody in there who can do what we need them to do, rather than just say anything just to get in office.”

Garner said she’s hopeful Harris will be able to pull off a win if turnout is high.

“It’s very close and that’s the scary part to me,” she said. “It’s very close for both of them, for Harris and for Trump. I think she has a good chance of pulling it out, if everybody gets out and votes.”

Steady stream voters head to the polls in Clayton County, where turnout had been lagging

Clayton County is one of the core metro Atlanta counties that Democrats count on in statewide races but heading into Election Day, the county’s 46.5% turnout was lagging the statewide average during early voting.

Clayton County, a predominantly Black county home to about 300,000 residents that is just south of Atlanta, was among the strategic campaign stops for Vice President Kamala Harris, who visited a local church last month while her husband and sister stumped there a week later.

The push for a higher turnout for Election Day received a boost Tuesday morning as a consistent stream of voters arrived at the polling station inside the Clayton library system headquarters. 

Local resident Tommie Dunmore was one of the Harris-Walz supporters to cast their ballot at the Jonesboro library.

“We need to make a change in this world,” Dunmore said. “Get the violence off the streets. I’m worried about high prices. We need to get back to just living life in God’s word.”

The 57-year-old followed her normal routine of waiting until the day of the election before voting at her designated precinct. She said it was a quick process for her to fill out her ballot Tuesday. 

A poll worker at the Clayton County library said he has been encouraged by the consistent turnout throughout the morning, especially the number of young and first-time voters.

Destiny Sparks, a new Georgia resident from Virginia, voted for the first time Tuesday since moving to Clayton County two years ago.

She declined to say how she voted in the presidential race but said she was concerned about immigration and the economy. 

“I’m concerned about the state of the economy, the high groceries, the high rent, just the cost of living every day,” said the 27-year old. “I’m really hoping things get better for us. Because I, you know, it’s sad how we live now almost feels like a third world country.” 

Dunmore said the time is now for a woman to be elected the next president of the United States. 

“It’s time for a woman,” Dunmore said. “She can do the job, and I believe she will do the job well.” 

Can Republicans still run up the score in vote-rich Cherokee County?

Cherokee County, the northern border of what is considered metro Atlanta, is a prime spot for Georgia Republicans.

It’s a mostly white county, and while southern Cherokee has become largely suburban as the population of Atlanta continues to spread outwards, the north end of the county is still relatively rural.

That adds up to a county with a relatively high population and a high portion of Republican votes for the taking. In 2020, Cherokee gave just under 100,000 votes to Trump, or just under 70% of all its ballots.

That’s down slightly from the 72% who voted for Trump there in 2016 and the 78% who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, but as one of the richest single sources of Republican votes in the state, GOP operatives have been hoping to run up the score here.

And there’s reason to believe that they have been successful. Cherokee boasts a 62.6% turnout rate in early voting, above the state’s already high average 55.6%.

But Democrats are also seeking to activate blue voters within the Republican stronghold. The county party announced events featuring big Dem names like Stacey Abrams and Sen. Jon Ossoff during early voting.

The voters trickling in and out Tuesday morning at the Lodge at Deer Run precinct said newcomers may be bringing their politics with them but they still see Cherokee County as solidly red.

“It’s definitely shifted blue as I think people of a Democratic nature have decided to move elsewhere because they haven’t liked the Democratic policies where they’re coming from, and unfortunately, they’re bringing it here,” said a 17-year resident and Trump supporter who asked not to be quoted by name.

Jamie Price, a 20-year resident who works in sales, said he’s not worried about Cherokee flipping blue any time soon.

“I think it’s pretty strongly red, just because of my friends and the people I know and my acquaintances,” he said. “I’m a salesman, and I drive all around this area and the people I talk to and run into all the time are Republican.”

James Nicholson, a 30-year-plus Cherokee resident, said voting for Trump was an easy choice for him.

“Law and order is important,” he said. “A secure border is required, two things proven by this last administration and previous Democratic administrations.”

It’s here! Georgians head to polls as Election Day arrives at last in a battleground that could decide who wins the White House

Tuesday’s closely watched Election Day begins before sunrise, with Georgia poll workers opening doors at 7 a.m. for voters expected to play an important role in settling the presidential election contest between former President Donald Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as dozens of other local, state and federal elections.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger estimated Monday that more than 1 million Georgians could vote in person Tuesday at one of the state’s 2,200 polling locations. In comparison, about 800,000 people voted during a pandemic on Election Day in the 2020 general election headlined by the presidential contest between Trump, then the Republican incumbent, and Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Raffensperger said that state and local officials have worked hard over the past several years to improve Georgia’s elections, including through the updating of election rules to enhance transparency and confidence in the electoral process. He promised to keep fighting to tamp down disinformation distributed by hostile actors to cast doubt on Georgia’s election system.

“What we do know is that Gov. Kemp, myself, our General Assembly, and thousands of election workers have worked every day to defend every legal vote,” Raffensperger said. “In the next few days, you may see some extra drama from fringe activists.”

Raffensperger characterized Georgia elections as “easy to vote and hard to cheat,” a common mantra among state leaders responsible for election administration.

“Our systems are secure and our people are ready,” he said. “Your local election officials will work around the clock tomorrow to ensure everything runs smoothly.”

The first round of reported results on election night will come from a state early voting record four million voters who cast ballots in-person at polling places and via absentee ballots prior to Tuesday. Changes to Georgia’s election law mean that the results of absentee ballots turned in by Monday will be released to the public within an hour after the polls close Tuesday.

Georgia was at the center of the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the election results in 2020, even after three vote tallies confirmed Biden’s narrow win and attempts to challenge the results in court were unsuccessful.

This year, Harris-Walz and state and national Democratic party organizations have been preparing in case Trump and his allies file lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the election results in several battleground states.

A Harris official told reporters last week that her campaign expects Trump to declare victory on election night, even if the result is still uncertain.

Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said the majority of the statewide unofficial results should be available to the public within a couple of hours of the polls closing Tuesday.

He warned, however, that thousands of ballots are still pending, which could decide a tight presidential race or many down ballot contests around the state.

Sterling said it would be easier to declare the winner with a difference of 50,000 votes between the presidential candidates, but a repeat of the tight 2020 election would take longer. Biden defeated Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes in Georgia in 2020. 

“This is a tight election. I want to make sure that all the Harris supporters and all the Trump supporters who can’t possibly imagine the person that they hate winning, it might happen,” Sterling said.

Counties with larger numbers of mail-in ballots will benefit from the early start of processing absentee ballots. Voters in Georgia have until 7 p.m. to return their absentee ballots to county election workers.

State law allows county officials to begin tabulating mail ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day, which means that a large number of absentee ballots and mail-in early in-person votes will be included in the initial votes reported on election night. 

More than 344,000 absentee ballots had been returned statewide as of Monday afternoon.

Among the final votes to be counted will be a number of ballots cast by Georgians living overseas and deployed military service members, whose mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and arrive by Friday in order to be counted. 

“The other two buckets of votes that can be there from Tuesday to Friday are the provisional votes that can be verified, and then also absentee ballots that can be cured,” Sterling said last week. 

Election officials encourage voters to check their specific precinct information on the state’s “My Voter Page” website before heading to the polls Tuesday.