Georgia: ‘Social Distancing & Sanitizing’: Georgia Opens Early Voting | Ben Nadler/Associated Press

Wait in your car until your group is called. Stand on the painted circle so you don’t get too close to other voters in line. (Please) Wear a mask. Everything you touch will be sanitized. Those are some of the new procedures Georgians were greeted with Monday as they participated in the first day of in-person early voting for the state’s June 9 primaries with the coronavirus pandemic still raging. In metro Atlanta’s Cobb County, Election Director Janine Eveler said new procedures and guidelines have “slowed things down considerably, and people are having to wait.” She said that voters faced wait times of over an hour Monday morning. Eveler said safety procedures implemented in Cobb include having people wait in their car until called up to the line in groups, maintaining 6-foot spacing in line and only allowing a small number of people into the voting room. In addition, an ongoing shortage of poll workers means the county is down to a single early voting location, when normally two are in operation for early voting’s first week.

Georgia: Amid budget cuts, Georgia pays $432,000 a year to keep old Diebold voting machines in storage | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As Georgia is preparing for deep budget cuts, the state government is paying $432,000 a year to store 30,000 voting machines that will never be used again. An attorney for the secretary of state’s office now says it will likely go to court to try to destroy the obsolete voting machines, which are locked in a warehouse because of a lawsuit over election security.The 18-year-old touchscreens, called direct-recording electronic voting machines, were replaced this year by a voting system that uses new touchscreens and also prints out paper ballots.“Continuing to preserve the DREs at a significant cost to Georgia taxpayers in times of national crisis for state budgets across the country is wasteful and unnecessary,” according to a May 9 letter from Bryan Tyson, an attorney for the state, to plaintiffs in the lawsuit.Negotiations to dispose of the outdated voting equipment have stalled in federal court.The Georgia voters behind the lawsuit want to preserve some of the old voting machines for inspection, allowing them to find out whether the machines were infected by viruses or malware, which they allege could have spread to the state’s replacement voting system. The secretary of state’s office has said the new voting system is secure and independent from its previous machinery.

Georgia: Judge rules against delaying Georgia’s June 9 primary again | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit that attempted to postpone Georgia’s June 9 primary election because of the coronavirus pandemic. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten leaves the primary date unchanged, with in-person early voting set to begin Monday.Batten wrote that elected Georgia officials have the authority to decide how to run elections — not the courts.“The framers of the Constitution did not envision a primary role for the courts in managing elections, but instead reserved election management to the legislatures,” Batten wrote in a 12-page order after a hearing earlier in the day. Lawyers for several Georgia voters had pleaded for a postponement of the primary, saying it would have allowed more time to vote by mail and prepare for in-person voting. But attorneys for state election officials said everyone will be able to vote safely, and the primary must go on even during the coronavirus.

Georgia: Tech glitches keep Atlanta voters waiting for mail ballots | Ben Nadler/Associated Press

The election director for Georgia’s most populous county said Thursday that technical issues have prevented officials from processing absentee ballot applications sent in by email, causing a backlog of thousands of pending applications ahead of the June 9 primaries. Voters in Fulton County, covering Atlanta and its northern and southern suburbs, have complained of weeks of waiting with little or no information. The issue highlights growing pains Georgia counties are experiencing from the state’s big shift toward absentee voting by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic. Election Director Richard Barron made the remarks at a video conference meeting of the Fulton County election board. He said that while the county was largely caught up with ballot applications sent through the mail, processing emailed applications has caused “a lot of difficulty.”

Georgia: Precincts close before primary because of coronavirus | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Some churches, senior centers and fire stations are shutting their doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving Georgia voters with fewer places to cast their ballots in the June 9 primary. Polling places have closed across Georgia, but especially in Fulton County, where more than 30 locations told election officials they’re unwilling to host voters on election day. The loss of precincts leaves fewer options for voters, increasing the danger of groups gathering to vote in fewer places. While nearly 1.3 million people have requested absentee ballots, in-person voting must remain available during three weeks of early voting starting May 18 and on election day June 9, according to state law. Voting locations in churches are the most vulnerable. Churches normally serve as 35% of the state’s precincts, but many of them have closed to both parishioners and the public to help prevent the spread of the coroanvirus, according to a statewide analysis of polling places by the Georgia News Lab, an investigative reporting partnership among Georgia universities and GPB News. An additional 27% of precincts are located in schools or municipal buildings, which are more likely to remain open for voting.

Georgia: Lawsuit says Georgia ballots postmarked by election day should count | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal lawsuit says ballots postmarked by election day should be counted, a change that could save thousands of votes from being rejected during the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit challenges a Georgia law that requires absentee ballots to arrive in county election offices by 7 p.m. on election day. Ballots that show up late are discarded, as in 2018 when about 3,800 ballots weren’t counted because they were received after election day, according to state election data.Filed by the New Georgia Project, a voter registration group, the lawsuit came Friday as the number of Georgia voters who have requested absentee ballots for the June 9 primary rose to a new high of nearly 1.3 million.The lawsuit also asks a judge to order free ballot postage, allow groups like the New Georgia Project to turn in ballots for voters, and require better notification of voters whose absentee ballot requests are rejected.Absentee voting restrictions should be lifted, said Marc Elias, an attorney for the New Georgia Project. “That has a potential to lead to widespread disenfranchisement,” Elias said. “The people oftentimes most impacted by that are young voters and minority voters.”

Georgia: Secretary of State ‘fed up’ with storing old voting machines | Claire Simms/FOX 5 Atlanta

As state leaders look for ways to slash their budgets in the wake of the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger finds one line item in his budget particularly troubling. According to the Secretary of State’s Office, they currently pay $36,000 per month, which adds up to $432,000 per year, to warehouse the state’s now retired electronic voting machines. “I’m tired of it and I’m fed up and I think taxpayers should be fed up,” Sec. Raffensperger said Friday. The old hardware lies at the center of an ongoing legal battle between the state and several voting and election transparency groups, who sued claiming the machines, and thus Georgians’ votes, were not secure. In an order last November, a United States District Court judge directed the state to “preserve all GEMS servers, DREs, memory cards, AccuVote scanners, and Express Poll books until further order of the Court in the event a forensic examination is deemed necessary at some point for purposes of this litigation.”

Georgia: Judge upholds postage requirement on Georgia ballots for June primary | Maya T. Prabhu/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge ruled that requiring postage on mailed absentee ballots for the June primary is not an unconstitutional poll tax on Georgia voters, but she said she will consider changes in future elections. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg said that removing the postage requirement would be difficult for the state to implement so close to the June 9 primary and confusing to voters who had already received their absentee ballots.The lawsuit by Black Voters Matter, a group founded in 2016 to increase African American voter registration and turnout, sued Secretary of State Brad Raffersperger after postage was not included.The group asked the judge to rule that the cost of voting by mail creates a barrier for those unwilling to risk buying stamps or voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic. Attorneys for Raffensperger said the cost of a stamp won’t stop anyone from voting. Attorneys for the organization suggested the state include postage stamps or business reply mail stickers, establish a website where voters could request a paid return envelope or place a secure drop box location at every post office in the state. Totenberg said she will consider whether the state should waive the postage requirement in future elections.

Georgia: Voters Ask Judge to Postpone Primary to Implement COVID-19 Safety Plan | R. Robin McDonald /Law.com Daily Report

An organization dedicated to election integrity and five women voters have asked a federal judge to delay Georgia’s primary for three weeks to implement a detailed COVID-19 safety plan. Plaintiffs lawyers asked District Judge Timothy Batten in a motion filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for an injunction postponing the primary, which also includes nonpartisan elections for the state’s judges, until June 30 in order to implement a comprehensive 18-point plan designed by the plaintiffs. The state already twice postponed the primary, which was originally scheduled for March 24. The pandemic safety plan proposed by the plaintiffs would allow in-person voting with significant safety requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and would correct a number of problems associated with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s push for a robust use of absentee ballots. But it would also largely replace statewide use of a new computer voting system that includes both a touchscreen and a paper ballot component exclusively with paper ballots. U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten has given the secretary of state until May 12 to respond.

Georgia: ‘This … is real to us’: Poll workers prepare for voters in pandemic | Nicole Sadek, Mary Margaret Stewart and Ada Wood/The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Georgia elections officials face a daunting question as they prepare for early voting in the June 9 primary in the midst of a global pandemic: What do they do if a voter appears ill? “I’ve asked for guidance from the state as to what we’re supposed to do if a manager notices anyone in line with symptoms,” Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron said at a recent elections board meeting. “I still haven’t heard back.”The Georgia News Lab and GPB News asked dozens of county supervisors how they would handle such a situation. None reported receiving any guidance from state elections officials as of publication, leaving local officials to determine how to balance health and safety concerns due to COVID-19 against the fundamental right to vote.A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the office is actively working with counties to develop best practices for polling locations.“Just like other essential services that have continued to operate during this time, in-person voting will need to incorporate both social distancing and increased cleaning,” Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said. “Exact measures will look different depending on the specific polling place but election officials should be prepared to limit the number of people in a polling place at a time.”

Georgia: Elections Officials Grapple With Potential COVID-19 Illness At Polls | Stephen Fowler/WJCT

Georgia elections officials face a daunting question as they prepare for early voting in the June 9 primary in the midst of a global pandemic: What do they do if a voter appears ill? “I’ve asked for guidance from the state as to what we’re supposed to do if a manager notices anyone in line with symptoms,” Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron said at a recent elections board meeting. “I still haven’t heard back.” GPB News and the Georgia News Lab asked dozens of county supervisors how they would handle such a situation. None reported receiving any guidance from the state elections officials as of publication, leaving local officials to determine how to balance health and safety concerns due to COVID-19 against the fundamental right to vote. A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the office is actively working with counties to develop best practices for polling locations.

Georgia: Ballots mailed to Georgia voters with incorrect instructions | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia election officials said Tuesday they will correct absentee ballot instructions that erroneously told voters to insert ballots into envelopes that no longer exist. Instructions mailed with future absentee ballots will tell voters that ballots should be placed inside a folded piece of paper labeled “Official absentee ballot,” which replaced an inner envelope that secured ballots in previous elections.The inner envelope protected the secrecy of ballots so they couldn’t be matched with voters’ information printed on the outer envelope. Without the inner envelope in Georgia’s June 9 primary, a county election worker could see how someone voted after opening the outer envelope.Absentee ballots will be counted as long as they’re received by the time polls close on election day, said Gabriel Sterling, implementation manager for Georgia’s voting system. Absentee ballots must be returned in signed and dated envelopes, which are still included. The secretary of state’s office only learned that absentee ballot packets wouldn’t include inner envelopes when voters began receiving them late last week, Sterling said.

Georgia: Absentee ballots mailed without an inner envelope | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Absentee ballots arriving in Georgia voters’ mailboxes now come with just one return envelope instead of two. State election officials eliminated the inner envelope, which secured ballots in another layer of packaging. The inner envelope has been replaced with a white folded piece of paper that says, “Official absentee ballot. Ballot must be enclosed.”The secretary of state’s office confirmed the change Monday — after voters began receiving absentee ballots last week.With just one envelope to open, county election officials will be able to process ballots more quickly, said Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs. Record numbers of Georgia voters are expected to mail their ballots for the June 9 primary after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent absentee ballot request forms to the state’s 6.9 million active voters. More than 825,000 people had returned their absentee ballot requests through Sunday.

Georgia: Judge considers whether Georgia ballot postage cost is a poll tax | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge appeared skeptical Friday about ordering Georgia’s government to cover the postage cost of returning primary election ballots in a case arguing that it’s an unconstitutional poll tax. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg was deciding whether to revoke the requirement for voters to pay for a 55-cent stamp on their absentee ballots, which are already being mailed to voters and tell them to “place sufficient postage here” before returning them for the state’s June 9 primary.“How do you do this without confusing people? How do you do this without creating a disparity in the voting process if some people are given stamps now when other hadn’t?” Totenberg asked during a four-hour court hearing held online via a Zoom videoconference. “There’s a host of problems.”Totenberg didn’t immediately issue a ruling Friday in the lawsuit, which says voters shouldn’t have to pay to cast their ballots. The lawsuit by Black Voters Matter, a group founded in 2016 to increase African American voter registration and turnout, asks the judge to rule that the cost of voting by mail creates a barrier for those unwilling to risk buying stamps or voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic. “The point is that folks shouldn’t have to put themselves at risk,” Cliff Albright, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said during the hearing. “Requiring this postage stamp creates a barrier to certain communities, low-income communities.”

Georgia: State may spend election relief money on drop boxes and safety gear | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia is slated to receive nearly $11 million in federal coronavirus relief funds for elections this year, money that could be used for protective gear, high-speed ballot scanners and absentee ballot drop boxes. Election officials are also planning to buy sanitation supplies and equipment that can quickly determine voter intent on absentee ballots that are in question, wrote Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a funding request letter to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. In addition, the state will reimburse counties for emergency election expenses.“Our team is putting voters first,” said Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs. “This funding will allow us to beef up security and delivery of absentee ballots, and provide a safer in-person voting experience for voters and poll workers alike.”The money comes from $2 trillion — including $400 million for elections — for coronavirus relief that was approved by Congress on March 26 and signed by President Donald Trump the next day. Georgia’s share of the federal money must be matched by $2.1 million in state funds, bringing its total election relief amount to about $13 million.The secretary of state’s office has already spent millions of dollars to encourage remote voting in the June 9 primary, sending absentee ballot request forms to Georgia’s 6.9 million active voters. That program costs over $3 million, plus between $1.88 and $2.38 per absentee ballot mailed, depending on the size of each ballot.

Georgia: Fulton County elections employee dies of COVID-19 before Georgia primary | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Fulton County elections employee has died from COVID-19 and a voter registration manager was hospitalized, slowing the county’s ability to handle a flood of absentee ballot requests for Georgia’s June 9 primary. Beverly Walker, a registration officer, died April 15 at age 62, said Fulton Elections Director Richard Barron.Registration Chief Ralph Jones also suffered coughing and shortness of breath, symptoms associated with COVID-19. Jones was treated at a hospital for low oxygen levels and was released after less than a day.The Fulton elections office closed for two days last week for deep cleaning and decontamination, Barron said.About 113,000 Fulton voters have submitted absentee ballot request forms so they can vote by mail, Barron said, but just 10,738 of them had been processed through Wednesday.“With this mortality rate, this is really nothing to play around with,” Barron said. “What are we going to do if a voter is in line that’s exhibiting symptoms? Are we allowed to use non-contact thermometers to take people’s temperature? Are we allowed to send someone home if they’re in line with a fever?” Barron said further guidance is needed to ensure the safety of voters and poll workers.

Georgia: Lawsuit seeks another Georgia primary delay amid coronavirus | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal lawsuit is seeking emergency changes to Georgia’s June 9 primary election — including another postponement and a switch to hand-marked paper ballots — because of the health risk from the coronavirus. The lawsuit, filed Monday by an election integrity group and five voters, said Georgia’s new voting touchscreens could spread the illness to voters at precincts.Though unprecedented numbers of voters are expected to mail their ballots this election, in-person voting locations must remain open, according to state law. More than 586,000 voters had requested absentee ballots through Monday.A judge should delay Georgia’s primary by three weeks, abandon touchscreens, allow curbside voting, create mobile “pop up” early-voting locations, permit vote centers on election day and provide protective equipment to poll workers, the lawsuit said.

Georgia: Voting in Primaries Could Look Much Different Amid Pandemic | Emil Moffatt/WABE

Thousands of absentee ballots for Georgia’s June primary elections are set to be mailed out on Tuesday. Early voting locations will re-open their doors in less than a month in advance of Election Day, June 9. It’s all set against the backdrop of the coronavirus, which has already wrought havoc this spring on voting in the state, delaying the state’s primaries not once, but twice. “Historically in Georgia, we are a people that enjoy voting in person, about 95% usually,” said Gabe Sterling, Chief Operating Officer with Georgia’s secretary of state’s office. But with concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, Georgians have flooded county elections offices with absentee ballot applications. As of Sunday, some 526,000 applications had been received. Georgia has had “no-excuse” absentee voting since 2005, but voters have used it relatively sparingly. But after the March 24 presidential primary was pushed back, the secretary of state’s office began a push to get more people to vote by mail by mailing absentee applications to all 6.9 million registered voters.

Georgia: Record number of absentee ballot requests pour in for Georgia primary | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

More Georgia voters are planning to vote by mail than ever before, with 395,000 people having requested absentee ballots so far for the June 9 primary. The first release of statewide primary voting data Wednesday night showed high demand for voting remotely during the coronavirus pandemic. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent absentee ballot request forms to Georgia’s 6.9 million active voters last month, encouraging them to avoid human contact at precincts.About half as many people, 220,000, voted absentee in the 2018 election for governor. There were almost 203,000 absentee ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election. More voters have requested Republican than Democratic absentee ballots for this year’s primary. About 223,000 people pulled Republican ballots compared to 161,000 Democratic ballots. Another 10,000 sought nonpartisan ballots.

Georgia: Mailed ballots will be counted, even without a stamp | Mark Niesse, The/Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The cost of a stamp to vote by mail in Georgia’s primary has been criticized in a recent lawsuit as an unconstitutional poll tax and an obstacle to casting your ballot. But postage to return absentee ballots isn’t truly required, no matter what voters have been told. The U.S. Postal Service has a long-standing policy of delivering absentee ballots even if they lack sufficient postage, usually at least the cost of a 55-cent first-class stamp, depending on the weight of the ballot. So while voters will be asked to pay for postage, they don’t really have to. It’s probably safer to add stamps, but mail carriers are told to deliver ballot envelopes labeled as “official election mail.” Mailed-in ballots are expected to arrive in droves before the June 9 primary after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent absentee ballot request forms to Georgia’s 6.9 million active voters. They’re being encouraged to vote from home and avoid human contact at the polls during the coronavirus pandemic.

Georgia: Some absentee ballot request forms list wrong return address | Mark Niesse, The/Atlanta Journal-Constitution

About 60,000 Georgia voters recently received absentee ballot request forms with the wrong return mailing or email address. Election officials said Wednesday that the absentee ballot requests will be delivered to their correct destinations, even if voters send them to the erroneous pre-printed addresses.The misprints occurred among absentee ballot request forms mailed to Georgia’s 6.9 million active voters by the secretary of state’s office last week, an effort to encourage voting away from precincts during the coronavirus pandemic.The issue affected voters in Troup County in west Georgia and Dawson County north of Atlanta. In Troup County, the return address for the local elections office listed the post-office box number as the street number, according to the county’s Facebook page. The U.S. Postal Service told the county it will deliver the forms to the correct address.

Georgia: Athens-Clarke County elections board ran up $40K legal bill in failed paper ballot move | Lee Shearer/Athens Banner-Herald

Athens-Clarke County commissioners have voted to pay $41,633 in legal fees for the county’s runaway Board of Elections, but most were not happy about it in a Tuesday commission meeting. In early March, the elections board voted 3-2 to switch to paper ballots in the now-delayed March 24 presidential primary, even though Athens-Clarke County Attorney Judd Drake warned them that the state would likely challenge the local board’s action, and that the local board would lose that challenge. After a day-long hearing in Athens, the state Board of Elections, which includes both Democratic and Republican party members, voted 5-0 to overturn the Athens-Clarke Board of Elections move to use paper ballots instead of the state’s new electronic voting system. Drake authorized hiring government law specialist Thomas Mitchell to defend the local board in the hearing, but the board in addition hired another lawyer, Bryan Sells, who submitted a bill for $23,617.72.

Georgia: GOP House Speaker says vote-by-mail system would be ‘devastating to Republicans’ | Aras Folley/The Hill

Georgia state House Speaker David Ralston (R) is coming out against a recent effort taken by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to mail absentee ballot request forms to all voters in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying the move could be “devastating” for Republican candidates.. Last week, Raffensperger announced the state would be mailing absentee ballot request forms to its nearly 7 million voters “in an effort to allow as many Georgia voters as possible to exercise their right to vote without leaving their homes.” The move came a week after the state postponed its presidential primary from March 24 until May 19, as officials nationwide have urged the public to stay indoors as much as possible and to avoid large gatherings in a bid to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.  During an interview released on Wednesday, Ralston was asked about concerns he had regarding Raffensperger’s move.

Georgia: Counties work to keep in-person early voting safe despite coronavirus | Amanda C. Coyne/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The coronavirus pandemic has forced elections officials to reexamine how to conduct voting while preventing the spread of disease. Potentially long voter lines, touch-screen voting machines and a high likelihood of more than 10 voters and poll workers in an indoor polling place present a challenge for election directors: They must conduct in-person balloting while trying to minimize voters’ and poll workers’ exposure to disease.Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett are each still nailing down the details of how voting will go forward.“These circumstances are unique — they are unprecedented, actually — and I think public health takes precedence,” said Rick Barron, Fulton County elections director. Georgia’s presidential primary was postponed to the May 19 general primary. Although early voting had begun throughout metro Atlanta, it was suspended on March 19 due to the coronavirus. More than 275,000 people had voted by then, twice the amount that had at the same point in 2016. Early voting is expected to resume April 27. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is encouraging residents to vote by mail, and the state is sending every registered voter an absentee ballot application. The secretary of state’s office began mailing those applications Monday, March 30. However, each county is still required under state law to offer at least one early voting location in the three weeks before election day.

Georgia: May primary is still on for now amid pressure for a delay | Mark Niesse and Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday that he lacks the power to delay Georgia’s May 19 primary even as he announced he would issue a statewide shelter-in-place order amid the coronavirus pandemic. The election is moving ahead despite pressure from all 11 of the state’s Republican members of Congress, who signed a letter Tuesday urging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change the primary date. Kemp and Raffensperger, both Republicans, said Georgia election laws prevent them from postponing the primary. Kemp said he can’t use emergency powers that last until April 13 to move the May election. “The attorneys I’ve talked to, I don’t have the authority under this (emergency) order to delay an election,” Kemp said. “I know there’s been a lot of talk about that. We’ve got our hands full in the COVID-19 fight.” Raffensperger, who already delayed the presidential primary once, said he also lacks the authority to change it again. A state law allows the secretary of state to postpone an election for 45 days during an emergency, as Raffensperger did March 14. The election could still be postponed at a later date, Raffensperger said.

Georgia: Voters mailed absentee ballot request forms for May 19 Georgia primary | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia election officials began mailing absentee ballot request forms Monday to the state’s 6.9 million active voters, making it easier for them to vote without having to show up in person. Voters who fill out and return the request forms will then be mailed a ballot for the May 19 primary, which includes candidates for president, Congress, the Georgia General Assembly and county offices.The mass mailing of absentee ballot request forms is an effort by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to encourage remote voting during the coronavirus pandemic. Georgia voters will also have the option of voting in person on election day and during three weeks of early voting starting April 27. Absentee ballot request forms will continue to be mailed through this week. Once voters return the forms to county election offices, ballots will be sent within three days.

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.

Georgia: Voting rights groups oppose Georgia bill to fight long lines | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

At first, a bill to fight long lines and open more voting locations seemed like it could win broad-based support. After all, who wants to be stuck in lines? Then came the backlash.A voting rights group called the proposal “the anti-voting rights bill of 2020.” Democrats in the state Senate said voters would still go to their old precincts, where they’d be unable to cast a ballot. They say the bill would discourage turnout instead of increasing it.The legislation, Senate Bill 463, would require election officials to add precincts, poll workers or voting equipment if voters had to wait in line for more than an hour before checking in to vote in the previous election. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Republicans say the measure would give voters more access to the polls. At least 214 precincts closed in Georgia from 2012 to 2018, according to research by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Voting rights groups should welcome expanded access to polling locations and shorter lines, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said. “Now it’s clear that some are all talk, no action,” Fuchs said. “They just want a talking point.”

Georgia: All active voters will be mailed absentee ballot request forms | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

All of Georgia’s 6.9 million active voters will be mailed absentee ballot request forms for the May 19 primary, a major push to encourage voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Tuesday. The absentee voting effort will allow Georgians to decide on their choices for president and other elected offices from home, without having to visit in-person voting locations where the coronavirus could more easily spread. Early voting and Election Day precincts will remain open. A large number of people voting by mail would be a significant change in the way elections are run in Georgia. While the state has allowed any voter to cast a ballot by mail since 2005, just 7% of voters did so in the 2018 election for governor. The state’s absentee ballot initiative follows an agreement by Raffensperger, a Republican, and the Democratic Party of Georgia to delay the previously scheduled March 24 presidential primary because of the coronavirus. The presidential primary will now be held May 19, along with races for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, the Georgia General Assembly and local offices.

Georgia: State Tells Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections Not to Use Paper Ballots | Flagpole

Earlier this month, the ACC Board of Elections ordered staff to switch from the new Ballot Marking Device (BMD) voting machines to paper ballots. This was a controversial 3-2 vote, with Chair Jesse Evans, Willa Fambrough and new member Rocky Raffle voting in favor, and Charles Knapper and Patricia Till voting against. While some people strongly prefer paper ballots because of election security, the reasoning given by board members was instead about voters’ constitutional right to ballot privacy. Paper ballots make this easier to do; inexpensive manila folders suffice to shield voter’s choices from view, which were used in Athens over the past week. Nevertheless, the decision was controversial. The ACC GOP even circulated a petition to have Evans removed from his position. The board was advised against this action by County Attorney Judd Drake and by Director of Elections Charlotte Sosebee. In Drake’s opinion, it would be very difficult to prove that it was “impossible or impracticable” for Athens to use BMDs as required by state law. Elections in Georgia are done in a uniform manner—counties aren’t free to choose their voting method in this state.