More than half a million individuals in Georgia who abstained from voting in the 2020 presidential election have made their voices heard during the early voting period that ended last Friday. An analysis conducted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in collaboration with GeorgiaVotes.com revealed that a staggering 613,000 voters participated, highlighting a significant shift in the state’s electoral landscape.

Among these new voters are a diverse mix of new residents, young Georgians who have recently reached voting age, and those who have returned to the state after time spent elsewhere. Additionally, many long-registered voters who chose not to participate in the 2020 election have picked up their ballots this time around. Bernard Fraga, a political scientist at Emory University, emphasized that discussions about voter engagement often overlook a crucial demographic. “We think of the electorate as being really static,” he noted. “When the much bigger pool of people is not folks who are switching (parties), it’s folks who couldn’t have voted, didn’t vote, or couldn’t have voted in previous years.”

Reflecting on previous elections, a similar trend was observed during the 2020 presidential cycle, where over 836,000 voters who did not participate in the 2016 election cast ballots before Election Day. That year, an astounding 1.5 million non-2016 voters ultimately participated, constituting approximately 31% of the total electorate. Fraga attributes the increase in new voters this year, at least in part, to record-high voter turnout and the expanded use of mail-in ballots, which allowed individuals to cast their votes earlier in the process.

Notably, more than half of the new voters identifying this year are white, followed by significant representations from Black voters and those who selected “Other” on their registration forms. The emerging trend in demographics shows a younger voter base, with those under 29 years old comprising the largest segment. Approximately 130,000 individuals are 21 or younger, many of whom would have been ineligible to vote during the 2016 election, along with about 27,700 voters who are 18 years old.

Interestingly, a considerable number of these new voters have participated in previous presidential elections but may have either relocated out of state or opted not to vote in recent years.