Georgia: Stamps become issue in Georgia’s absentee ballot plan | Susan McCord/The Augusta Chronicle
As Georgia begins to mail absentee ballot applications to all registered voters this week, the plan is raising questions about whether it goes far enough to protect voters. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Tuesday that his office is mailing absentee ballot applications to all 6.9 million registered voters in the state, an effort to limit possible transfer of the coronavirus at polling places. The cost to taxpayers is up to $13 million, but the plan only includes postage to mail the applications and the requested ballots to voters. The price tag does not cover the 55-cent stamp needed to return the application or the 65 cents in postage — more than the 55-cent Forever stamp — that area voters need to mail back the ballots. Gregg Murray, a political science professor at Augusta University, said the stamps are an added expense that could discourage some from participating. “Having to go get a stamp is a new cost for people that don’t usually do mail,” he said. “Voting is kind of a cost-benefit analysis that probably most people go through. If the benefits outweigh the costs, they will do it.” The stamps themselves could befuddle some younger voters. Murray said he wasn’t sure all his students were familiar with them.