More Than 8,000 Georgians Have Already Voted

With over a month to go until Election Day, more than 8,000 Georgians have already cast their ballots via absentee voting.

That's how many ballots had come back in since they were mailed out September 20 to voters who requested them, according to the Georgia Secretary of State's office.

But it's only a fraction of the roughly 100,000 absentee ballots that were delivered, the office says, and an even tinier percentage of all Georgians expected to cast their votes before November 8.

Voters wishing to request an absentee ballot can submit a written application to their local county registrar or log on to the Secretary of State's "My Voter Page (MVP)" to print out the application, which can be mailed to the registrar.

The deadline to request an absentee ballot is November 4. But Secretary of State Brian Kemp is urging Georgians who would like to vote absentee to get their ballot well in advance of that deadline to avoid last-minute problems.

The number of early voters in Georgia is expected to ramp up considerably in a couple of weeks, when early polling begins.

Advance in-person voting begins on October 17. State law also requires the polls to be open on Saturday, October 29 in all 159 counties for Georgians to vote in the November contests.

Voters may, again, check the Secretary of State's voting pages for information on which of their local polling places will be open for early-voting.

In all, nearly 2 million Georgians voted early in the last presidential election in 2008.

This year's race promises to be the closest presidential tilt in Georgia in more than two decades.

Several of the most recent polls in the Peach State have shown Republican Donald Trump with about a 4-point lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

One factor could be what voting officials describe as a surge in Latino voter registration in the state.

Secretary of State records obtained by CBS46 News show the number of Latino active registered voters in Georgia has grown by at least 16,000 people, or nearly 20 percent, from October 2015 to April 2016 and by 10,431, or another 10 percent, from April to September of this year.

That's a faster clip than any other ethnic group and comes as Trump has angered many in the Latino community with his harsh anti-immigration stance and language that some have deemed offensive.

“They want to have their voice heard on election day as well,” Jerry Gonzalez, of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, told CBS46.

“We are a non-partisan organization, we can’t tell people to vote for or against anyone so they choose who they want to vote for. But, ultimately, there has been a lot of concern and angst about Donald Trump as a presidential candidate."

Flag image via Georgia Secretary of State's office