MOULTRIE, Ga. — Early voting has maintained a strong turnout, both locally and state-wide, since its start last week.

Paula McCullough, Colquitt County’s voter registrar, said 4,679 people have cast early voting ballots as of 1:15 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’ve had a few come in wanting to vote today. It’s pretty big for the week. For a week that’s a pretty big number,” McCullough said by phone.

The runoff election only has one race on the ballot, the one between Herschel Junior Walker, a Republican, and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, for Warnock’s Senate seat.

“More than 1.7 million Georgia voters cast ballots last week ahead of the U.S. Senate runoff, a sure sign that interest is high in the contest between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker,” Capitol Beat reported Monday morning.

Warnock received more votes than Walker with 49.44% of the 3,935,924 votes cast in the Nov. 8 general election, but both candidates failed to receive the necessary 50% plus one vote to win outright. Walker received 48.49%, and a third candidate, Libertarian Chase Oliver, received 2.07%.

Colquitt County did not participate in Saturday early voting, but it did extend the voting hours to give more time for voters to cast a ballot early.

Capitol Beat also reported that 352,953 ballots were cast on Friday, the final day for early voting. It surpassed the previous one-day record for early voting in Georgia set ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Counting absentee and military voters, the total turnout reached 1.85 million, 26.4% of active Georgia voters, according to a Capitol Beat article.

Chief Operating Officer for the Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling took to Twitter Monday morning with comments about early voting.

“The records continue to rise. As of this morning, 154,176 absentee ballots have been accepted and voted. That is an 83% increase from the previous midterm runoff record of about 84k,” Gabriel Sterling tweeted.

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the strong early voting turnout shows the new law requiring voters to show a photo ID to vote absentee and limiting the number of absentee ballot drop boxes does not suppress voting as its opponents have claimed.

“Georgia has struck the perfect balance between accessibility and security,” Raffensperger told Capitol Beat. “These historic turnout levels emphasize that any lawful voter who wants to cast a ballot can do so easily.”

The runoff election is Tuesday, Dec. 6. Voters who haven’t already cast early ballots can vote at their normal precincts. If you’re not sure where that is, visit https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/ for more information. Those polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Moultrie Observer’s website, www.moultrieobserver.com, will provide results as they become available, but the print edition of Wednesday’s newspaper will go to press before polls close Tuesday afternoon.