VALDOSTA — Lowndes County’s elections chief said the Nov. 5 presidential election may break the county’s record for voter turnout before the official voting date even arrives.

As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, 30,390 ballots for either Republican Donald Trump or Democratic candidate Kamala Harris had been cast through early voting at the Lowndes County Board of Elections headquarters ahead of a 7 p.m. Friday deadline, said elections supervisor Deb Cox.

That means 41.2% of Lowndes County’s active voters have already cast their ballot. 

In contrast, by Oct. 18, 2020, about half that number — 15,346 — had cast their votes early in the previous presidential election, past reporting shows.

In 2020, Cox told The Times the county was breaking records. Now she’s saying it again.

“We’ve broken all the records,” she said Wednesday. “Blowing it out of the water … Not just in Lowndes but in all the other counties I’ve spoken to.”

Normal voter turnout in Lowndes County for presidential elections is 35-38%, Cox said.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said elections records are falling across the state, she said.

There have been no problems with early voting other than a few isolated instances of “bad actors” making trouble, Cox said.

“We had a fight break out in a parking lot, someone trying to spit on someone else,” Cox said. Nothing has gotten serious enough to call police about, she said.