Voters have turned out early in the key US swing state of Georgia, shattering previous first-day records as election polls opened – and show no sign of slowing.

Just two days after early voting opened in the state this week for the November 5 presidential election, 620,000 people – or 8.6 per cent of active voters – had already turned out, according to data from the Georgia Secretary of State’s election dashboard.

That included 312,000 votes on the first day, shattering the previous record of 136,000 set in 2020.

Current US President Joe Biden won Georgia by just over 10,000 votes in 2020. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is perhaps best known for rejecting Donald Trump’s infamous request after the 2020 election to “find 11,780 votes”.

This week an officer from Raffensperger’s department confirmed a 123 per cent increase in day-one numbers on 2020.

“Over 300,000 votes cast today,” Raffensperger’s chief operating officer Gabriel Sterling said.

“Great job, counties and voters.”

The second day brought more than 273,000 people to cast ballots in a state that could be integral to the electoral chances of Trump, the Republican candidate, and Democratic contender Kamala Harris.

Local Democrats exuberantly welcomed the announcement, particularly because of the high turnout in places such as Atlanta, where they have traditionally performed well.

“We have shocked the nation in Georgia before with historic voter turnout in 2020 and now we are even surpassing that,” Nikema Williams, an Atlanta Democrat representative, said.

“There’s a lot more days of early voting to go, and so we have to keep this momentum going.”

Michael Medved, an American political commentator, radio host and author, said that predictions of a low voter turnout overall may be misplaced based on Georgia’s early numbers.

“It may be an indication that some of the fears about the election having a low turnout and people not going ahead and voting, that those fears are not justified,” he said.

“The question is, if they do have a high turnout [of voters], as they did [in 2020], does that end up helping Harris or Trump or neither of them, because the polls are so close?”

Judgment

The flow of voters came as a state judge ruled, less than three weeks before the election, that seven proposed changes by Georgia’s voter commission board – including requiring hand counting of ballots – were “illegal, unconstitutional and void”.

“Finally, the public interest is not disserved by pressing pause here,” Judge Robert McBurney said in his decision, which is subject to challenge.

“This election season is fraught; memories of January 6 have not faded away, regardless of one’s view of that date’s fame or infamy.”

The proposals, ticked off by a board stacked with Trump-backed appointees, potentially could have delayed the certification of the election and was a source of angst for Democrats.

Georgia’s Superior Court also handed down another consequential decision on Monday (local time), when it ruled that election officials must certify and rubber stamp results and had no power to refuse to do so.

Trump praised three members of the election board at a rally in Atlanta earlier in the year, stating they were “all pit bulls fighting for transparency, honesty and victory”.

Trump has heaped praise on Georgia election officials. Photo: Getty

Republicans and allies of Trump have already pre-emptively filed more than 100 lawsuits in key swing states to prepare for post-election legal challenges, according to Reuters.

Tightest of races

Although Harris leads in national polls, Trump and the Vice President are neck and neck in battleground states, with the Republican nominee holding a 1.2 per cent average polling lead in Georgia.

If Trump loses the state, his path to return to the presidency, and potentially keep himself out of jail, will be severely diminished.

Biden beat Trump in Georgia by the slimmest of margins – resulting in Trump’s infamous phone call to Raffensperger.

A repeat for Harris this time around would almost certainly unlock the doors to the White House.

Trump faces racketeering charges for his efforts to overthrow the results. The case has been delayed for the foreseeable future.