Georgia’s early-vote surge shows the smears about its voting law were complete nonsense

We all know what happens when a tree falls in an empty forest. What happens when a democracy emerges unscathed from a purported vile racist threat to its very existence?

Pretty much the same thing, it turns out.

The surge in the early vote in Georgia shows that all the smears about the state’s new voting law, repeated by everyone from the president of the United States on down, were complete nonsense.

On the Republican side, according to the secretary of state’s office, there have been 453,929 early votes and 29,220 absentee votes this primary season (absentee votes are still coming in as of this writing). This is compared with just 153,264 early votes and 14,795 absentee votes during the last, pre-pandemic midterm, in 2018.

The Democrats have seen a similar surge. In 2022, there have been 337,245 early votes and 31,704 absentee votes, compared with only 134,542 early votes and 13,051 absentee votes in 2018.

The early vote among minorities in particular is up markedly.