US Elections: More than 129,000 voters registered in Georgia, giving Kamala Harris the lead

US Elections: Since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 election, more than 129,000 Georgians have registered to vote, which may be encouraging for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Georgia is one of several battleground areas where the outcome of the 2024 election between Democratic contender Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, might be determined.

According to polls, the state has become more competitive in the two months since Biden withdrew his candidacy for reelection on July 21 and Harris joined the race.

L2 Data data that the media report investigated shows that the state had at least 120,000 new registrations between July 21 and September 8.

Approximately 51,000 more Democrats registered to vote at that time than Republicans did. Among the registrations, at least 64,000 are not affiliated voters.

However, the influx of new voters, particularly those who are young and of race, may give Harris the advantage in Georgia, a state that Biden barely defeated in 2020.

The majority of newly registered users are young; of them, 56% are 34 years of age or younger, with 20% being 18 years old. Approximately 53% of voters are people of color.

Black voters strongly favor Harris, the first vice president who is both South Asian and Black. According to polls, Hillary is outperforming Trump among Latino voters. There is also a sizable population of Indian Americans in Georgia, and if they support Harris, they might help catapult her to the presidency.

Meanwhile, a new study from the Harvard Institute of Politics shows that Harris is leading Trump by 31 points among potential voters under 30.

It follows the Democratic National Committee’s recent voter registration drive at Georgia’s and five other battleground states’ historically Black schools and universities as well as Hispanic-serving establishments.

Young voters are “critical to the coalition that Governor Tim Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris are building ahead of November’s election,” according to a statement released by DNC chair Jaime Harrison. “The DNC is taking every opportunity to reach students where they are and make sure they have all of the tools they need to vote this November on the issues that matter most to them.”

According to University of Georgia professor Charles Bullock’s media report, Democrats “have done well among young voters and voters of color” in the most recent elections.

“To win Georgia, Democrats need strong support from non-White voters, and they need for these groups to turn out in large numbers,” Bullock said.

Harris is “not meeting the level of support from minorities that she would need to win Georgia,” according to recent surveys. “This could be good news for the Harris campaign to the extent that the ranks of minority voters are growing at rates higher than White voters,” he said.

The head of University College London’s Center on U.S. Politics and associate professor of political science Thomas Gift told a media report that the “surge of voter registrations among youth people and people of color in Georgia can only spell good news for Harris.”

It is evidence of the potency of her campaign’s grassroots strategy and unwavering concentration on energizing groups of people who lean Democratic. Even a small percentage of newly registered voters may turn the tide in favor of Harris in key battleground states on election day, according to Gift.

Democratic mobilization of the youthful voter base that has lately registered to vote, according to Bullock, will be a struggle.

“Young voters tend to be the age cohort least likely to go to the polls, and newly registered voters of all ethnicities, especially if they have no experience with voting, may hesitate to venture into this unknown process,” he said.

It’s possible that they are unaware of the location for voting. One approach to connecting with newly registered voters and encouraging their participation in the political process is by having volunteers walk door-to-door.

Republicans “dominate” rural Georgia, according to Bullock; thus, Democrats “must stockpile enough urban votes to withstand the rural preference for Republicans if the state is to be in the Harris column on November 5.”