High Ga. turnout as 540,000 cast ballots early

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081015/ap_on_el_pr/early_voting_georgia

More than 540,000 ballots have already been cast in Georgia, including many from the Democratic strongholds of metropolitan Atlanta in what could be an encouraging sign for Barack Obama's presidential bid.

Black voters have made up a disproportionately high percentage of early voters, accounting for 37 percent of Georgia's early voters. Blacks represent 29 percent of the state's 5.6 million registered voters.

With three weeks to go until the Nov. 4 election, the number of ballots cast early in Georgia has already eclipsed the total number of early voters in advance of the 2004 presidential election.

Georgia elections officials say the number of early voters could ultimately top 1 million.

(snip)
Many of the early voters come from left-leaning strongholds throughout the state. Fulton and DeKalb counties, both heavily Democratic metro Atlanta counties, account for more than 90,000 of the ballots cast. Savannah's Chatham County has logged another 16,000 votes.

:hi:

And Jim Martin! And Doug Heckman!

I will be surprised if he doesn't win this state - I don't care what the polls say, I'm going by what I hear on the ground.

:kick: & RRRRRRRRRR

I'm 43, white, & female, and I proudly cast my vote for Obama/Biden.

Many of the folks standing in line were elderly African-Americans. I couldn't help but think that some of them probably remembered a time when they were harassed or worse when they tried to vote. How many of them thought they'd live to see the day they got a chance to vote for the first black president? How's that for motivation?

Just my 2 cents.

This is based almost completely from non-empirical evidence - watching "House Hunters" - but there seems to be very strong African-American middle and professional classes in Atlanta. I think the demographics have shifted significantly in Georgia. Maybe when the South rises again, it will be a good thing!