Voters in the swing state of Georgia turned out in record numbers on Tuesday as early voting for the November 5 presidential election began, as per state officials.

At least 252,000 voters had cast their ballots at the early voting sites as of 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (2000 GMT). That was nearly double the 136,000 opening-day participants in early in-person voting for the 2020 election, said Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's No. 2 election official.

Sterling took to social media and exclaimed: "Spectacular turnout." 

While some voting sites reported an hour-long wait in Atlanta's core counties, others reported little or no wait time.

Georgia is one of the seven competitive battleground states likely to play a decisive role in the election result.

The turnout reflects the popularity of early voting — either in person or by mail — also seen in the 2020 elections. 

Harris in Detroit, Trump in Atlanta on campaign trail

As early voting began in Georgia, candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties conducted media interviews as part of their campaigns.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris sat down for a radio interview with a host who goes by the name Charlamagne tha God on Tuesday, defending her record as a prosecutor, pledging to decriminalize marijuana and vowing to push for police reforms.

Charlamagne, a Black comedian and author who hosts the radio show 'The Breakfast Club,' is known for his blunt interviews of celebrities.

On Wednesday, she will be interviewed on conservative-leaning Fox News.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump attended an all-women town hall event in Atlanta, Georgia, hosted by Fox News. There, he said he would work towards tax breaks for lower-income Americans.

"We're going to readjust things so that it's fair to everybody, because it's really not fair to everybody," he said.

Before that, he sat down for an interview with editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News John Micklethwait where he defended his protectionist trade policies, fiscal proposals and dismissed notions that it could increase the federal debt burden and harm the US economy. 

Musk becomes Republican mega-donor

Billionaire Elon Musk has contributed some $75 million to his pro-Donald Trump spending group American PAC over three months, according to federal disclosures. This outlines how crucial Musk has become to Trump's campaign. 

American PAC focuses on turning out voters in swing states like Georgia. The group spent $72 million of that in the July-September period, the disclosure said. Musk was the sole donor to the group in that period.

That is more than any other pro-Trump PAC with a focus on voter turnout. 

mk/msh (AP, Reuters)