Turnout from Georgia’s first day of early voting set a new state record for a midterm election, nearly doubling the figure from the same time period in the previous midterms, state election officials said Tuesday.

More than 131,000 Georgia voters cast ballots since early voting began Monday, according to the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The figure represents an 85% boost over the 2018 midterms, when nearly 71,000 early votes were cast on Day One, the office said.

The first day of early voting in Georgia set a midterm turnout record, with over 133,000 in-person voters casting their ballots, an early sign of strong interest in this year’s elections.

Turnout on Monday far exceeded the last midterms in 2018, when about 71,000 people showed up at the start of early voting, according to state election data.

The fast start put Georgia on pace to surpass the 3.9 million voters who cast ballots four years ago, though turnout appears unlikely to reach the 5 million voters who participated in the 2020 presidential election.

Conservative Twitter users slammed Democrats for having once claimed that updated Georgia election laws were "Jim Crow 2.0" after state election officials reported this week that early voting numbers this year smashed turnout in the 2018 midterms. 

In 2021, President Joe Biden, fellow Democratic lawmakers and major media outlets attacked a new Georgia election integrity law as an attempt by GOP officials to suppress the vote, particularly among the African American community.