Beware the GOP’s spin on Georgia’s massive voter turnout numbers

Georgia Republicans are touting record-breaking early voting in the midterms as a sign of a thriving democracy. Not so fast.

To be clear, there are promising signs about Georgia’s voter turnout numbers, but not enough to tell us much about voter access with any certainty. And we definitely don’t know enough to support any wild claims that the state’s new election law has helped secure elections. In fact, we have every reason to believe it will negatively affect turnout.

But there are a couple of things we do know.

Along with the aggregate numbers released by the state, experts tracking early voting in Georgia have assessed that as of Thursday morning, roughly 53% of the early votes have come from Democrats. That’s compared with about 40% for Republicans.

Raffensperger is playing number games by suggesting that the high turnout implies voting has been made “convenient” for everyone, because there’s no basis for that claim.

For one: The sheer number of early voters doesn’t automatically suggest democracy is in full bloom.

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