In early primaries, voters favor polling places over mail

ATLANTA (AP) – Ten of millions of people in the United States opted for mail ballots during the pandemic election of 2020.

This year, voters in the early primary states are returning in droves to in-person voting. In Georgia, about 85,000 voters have requested mail ballots for the May 24 primary.

That’s a dramatic decrease from the nearly 1 million who cast mail ballots in the state’s 2020 primary at the height of the pandemic.

Early in-person voting in the state is shattering records. The trend away from mailed ballots is seen in Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, which also have held early primaries.