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About the site  |  Reading the numbers  |  For voters and the press  |  Whatâs next
About the site
What is this?
a) That's a rude way to say hello.
b) It's a simple website that takes publicly available early voting information and organizes it in a way that's useful.
Who are you?
My name is Ryan. I live in Atlanta and work as an engineer developing marketing solutions for big companies. I also post on Bluesky. I have Threads and then X accounts but you won't find me there often if at all.
Why do this?
From time to time I like working on politics stuff, so essentially it's for fun. If you like it that's cool. If you like it enough to want to work with me on something else that's even cooler!
Who is paying for this?
No one, this is just a solo project. I have previously licensed the data and analysis to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution but right now it's all me. There are no campaigns, political parties, non-profits, etc paying for me to do this.
Is this associated with the Secretary of State?
Nope. The only involvement that the GA SOS office has with this site is that the data I use is the data they make publicly available.
Reading the numbers
How do you get this data?
The Georgia Secretary of State makes absentee voter files available for free download. You can also download historical voter history files for free. Cue up a little scripting magic (I prefer Python) and you can cut everything up into a relational database. Go buy yourself the full voter list for $485, download the file (we're in the 2020s now, it's delivered digitally!), dust off some more Python scripts and you're set.
How often is it updated, and when?
I update the site daily, typically in the morning when I'm drinking coffee so sometime in the 600am-700am ET range. You can see a "Last updated" timestamp at the top of the homepage.
What counts as a vote here?
Ballots must be in 'A' status (accepted) and carry a 'Ballot Return Date' in order for me to count them in the numbers. You can also flip the site to show Applications. This was more interesting in 2020 when the vast majority of early voters voted by mail. Now the two metrics are almost identical.
What does â% of â22â mean?
This compares the vote so far to the total early vote in 2022. I compare to the previous election of the same type, so midterm year vs midterm year and Presidential year vs Presidential year.
Where do race, age and gender come from?
These are all listed in the Secretary of State's Voter File. The full list of races is significantly longer than 5, but I group a lot of the smaller populations into 'Other' for ease of display.
Can you tell who is winning?
I would be very cautious trying to read the early vote as a great election result predictor. We have no idea who anyone voted for, and Georgia has no party registration so we can't even infer from that. With that said, I enjoy looking at the trends over time and do think there is value to be found.
For voters and the press
Can I see if my application has been processed?
You sure can! Just not on this site. Go to the My Voter Page that the state makes available, put in your information, and navigate to the âClick here for Absentee Ballot statusâ link. You will get a pop up like the one below that tells you everything you need to know.
Can you look up an individual voter?
No. I don't share any individual voter data on this site, and it's not connected to any data sources with individually identifiable data. It's all served off summary tables.
Can I cite or reuse the numbers?
Absolutely! I welcome and encourage that. In fact, I'm working on ways to embed my numbers directly in your site/newsletter/etc. If you do reuse anything, it would be very much appreciated if you mentioned the site.
Whatâs next
Do you still have the information from older elections?
I still have some of them. I've got a project underway right now to make the older elections more easily available for you to go through and see.
Will there be election-night results?
This is the top of my feature list right now. Georgia makes a JSON file available now, meaning that it's definitely possible. But I have to see what is possible over the next few weeks.
Are there any more features coming?
Absolutely. I'm constantly looking for more feedback to make this site more usable and engaging for folks. So reach out if you have something else you'd like to see.