Record breaking voter turnout in Georgia today despite fewer drop boxes and law against food/drink offers

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/15/politics/early-voting-georgia-north-carolina/index.html

Georgia is shattering its record for early voting turnout in the critical swing state on Tuesday, according to state election officials, with over 188,000 votes cast by 2 p.m. ET. “We are looking at blowing by 200,000 votes cast in person today. Hats off to our counties and the voters who are turning out. HUGE!” Gabriel Sterling with Georgia’s Secretary of State office posted on social media.

Here’s what to know about how voting and elections will work in two key swing states.

Georgia
Fewer drop boxes but more ways to vote early

New state laws after 2020 that tightened rules for absentee ballots and cracked down on the availability of drop boxes may make the option less appealing than early in-person voting, election experts said.

While many drop boxes were available 24/7 in 2020, this year there will be fewer of them, and they will be in election offices or early vote locations with hours that tend to mimic normal business hours.

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A 2021 law that makes it a crime to offer food or drinks to voters waiting to cast a ballot – which was highly publicized by news outlets and immortalized by comedian Larry David in episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” – mostly survived legal challenges. So, offering a bottle of water or a snack to voters within 150 feet of a building where ballots are being cast is still banned.

The law also sought to ban offers of food or beverages within 25 feet of a voter standing in line, even if it was well beyond 150 feet of the building where ballots were being cast. A judge paused that provision, allowing voting rights groups to offer so-called line relief to voters that may find themselves waiting in particularly long lines.