By Tuesday evening, the end of Georgia’s second day of early voting, more than 291,700 people had voted either in person or absentee. That marked a 75.3% increase over the same moment in the 2018 midterm and a 3.3% rise from the second day of early voting in the 2020 presidential election. Midterms rarely match the enthusiasm of presidential contests.

President Biden told voters in Atlanta in January that Georgia’s election rules would “suppress your vote, to subvert our elections.” The state’s “Jim Crow 2.0” law was “insidious,” he said, urging his followers to “hate evil.” The solution, which congressional Democrats were then proposing, was a federal takeover of elections, which he said would be a victory of “democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice.”

It was among his more reckless speeches—a high bar—though only one part of the hysterical overreaction to Georgia’s modest changes. Major League Baseball stripped Georgia of the All-Star Game; the CEOs of Atlanta-headquartered Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola stumbled in with moral condemnations; the Justice Department filed a lawsuit; the media lost its wig. Georgia Republicans patiently explained that their reforms were designed to increase both ballot access and security. They were right, and lucky for Georgia voters, they stood firm.

(via Memeorandum)