Georgia early voting picked up in the final days, but it looks like turnout will fall just short of the 2 million ballots cast before the 2008 election.

Early voting in metro Atlanta was down by a larger margin, however, suggesting that Georgians in the rest of the state are picking up the slack.

As of Friday, almost 1.9 million people had either voted in person or mailed in ballots. That’s more than a third of all registered Georgia voters. The total is not final, as elections officials expect more mail-in ballots to arrive through Election Day. About 73,000 requested absentee ballots had yet to be returned by Monday, according to Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office.

Floyd County’s early turnout was similar.

Approximately 31 percent of Floyd County’s voters cast early ballots from Oct. 15 through Friday, according to figures provided by the local elections office.

By the end of Friday, the early vote total was 14,365. There are 47,091 registered voters for today’s election.

By comparison, during the 2008 election, 17,911 advance votes were cast early in Floyd County. Neither that figure not this year’s total include absentee paper ballots that were mailed out to certain voters.

Statewide, most demographic groups are down slightly from their 2008 totals. Hispanic men and women are exceptions. Combined, they have cast 15,666 ballots, up from 14,914 four years ago.

Asian-Americans are also up slightly, casting 12,159 ballots compared to the previous 12,017.

Black voters made up about a third of the early ballots received so far this year, more than their 30-percent share of all registered voters. Their 653,070 early ballots are about 93 percent of their 2008 total.