John Sudworth
North American correspondent reporting from Georgia

After this morning’s initial rush to vote, lines have thinned out at most polling stations we saw in Atlanta, in the heart of one of America’s most reliably Democratic counties.

More than half of the voters in the state of Georgia — nearly four million — cast ballots before election day, easing the pressure with early voting.

I met David Schnee, a volunteer poll watcher affiliated with the Democratic Party, and he told me he was concerned about changes to how people vote in this state.

Voters in Georgia are required to cast their votes in their assigned ballot box, but in 2020, those who voted in the wrong ballot box were still able to cast provisional ballots.

This year, they will no longer be able to do this if they arrive before 17:00 local time (22:00 GMT).

“We have arranged tours, volunteers with cars, and in some cases the correct polling station is over an hour away,” he told me.

Teerica Doward is one of these people. He had recently moved and didn’t realize his voting registration was still tied to the polling station at his old address, a 30-minute drive away.

He suspects the new rules are designed to make it harder for Georgia’s working class to vote. “I feel like everything is set up that way, and I wish we could vote wherever we are,” she says. “I know who I’m voting for, I’m voting for Kamala Harris.”

Every vote counts in this state. Joe Biden won Georgia by less than 12,000 votes in 2020.