ATLANTA — More than 72,000 people have cast early ballots in Georgia's presidential primary.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office said Monday that includes nearly 55,000 people who cast an early vote in person and around 17,500 who mailed in an absentee ballot. There are still nearly 14,000 absentee ballots requested by voters that have not been mailed back yet to election officials.

Local officials will not count those ballots until the March 6 primary, so it remains unclear which GOP presidential candidate has the lead in early voting.

Advance voting continues in Georgia counties this week.