On Tuesday, October 15, one of the "shaky"; American states — Georgia — recorded a record turnout for the first day of early elections.
This was reported by the election official in Georgia Gabriel Sterling.
Precincts accepted more than 328 000 ballots. The previous record was set during the 2020 elections — 136 000 ballots.
In the latest polls, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowly beat Democrat Kamala Harris. 49% of citizens cast their votes for the ex-president, while 48% voted for Harris, according to data from The New York Times. In general, in the previous polls, Trump is mostly in the lead.
Instead, Georgia voters favored Democrats in 2020. President Joe Biden led by a narrow margin of just 11 779 votes out of nearly 5 million ballots. Trump even tried to challenge this result, but he was unsuccessful.
The record number of ballots this year may be due to the fact that Georgia introduced new voting rules that significantly limit the number of ballot boxes at the polling stations, as well as the time for voting.
While in 2020 the boxes were available 24 hours a day, this year there will be significantly fewer of them and it will be possible to cast votes only during working hours. This encourages citizens to vote early by mail.
Elections in the USA
This yearʼs presidential election in the USA will be held on November 5, 2024. Donald Trump became the Republican candidate in mid-July and presented his vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance. Vance consistently opposes aid to Ukraine and says that Kyiv will have to cede some territories for a ceasefire.
Incumbent Joe Biden was supposed to be the Democratic nominee, but after an unsuccessful debate with Trump in June, he came under fire and pressure from the leaders and donors of the US Democratic Party. So on July 21, Biden officially announced that he was withdrawing from the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.
On August 21, Harris became the official candidate of the Democratic Party. Her vice-presidential candidate is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, known for his support of Ukraine and sharp criticism of Trump and Vance.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.