Feb 2, 2025 Story by: Editor
Georgia has enacted new voting laws following Governor Brian Kemp’s signing of SB 202, a comprehensive 98-page bill.
The “Election Integrity Act of 2021” passed through the legislature along party lines and introduced several significant changes to the state’s election procedures. While some adjustments are welcomed by local election officials who faced challenges during the pandemic-induced surge in mail-in voting, others have sparked controversy.
Given the extensive nature of this legislation, both supporters and critics are focusing on various sections. However, many of these changes may not be immediately apparent to voters.
Ultimately, Georgia voters will be affected by most of the modifications now in effect. Below is a detailed breakdown of how these changes will impact voters.
Changes to Absentee Voting
Mail-in absentee voting will undergo significant alterations, especially after 1.3 million people utilized this method in the November general election. Voters aged 65 and over, those with disabilities, military personnel, and residents living overseas will still be able to apply once for a ballot and automatically receive one for the remainder of an election cycle. However, the earliest voters can request a mail-in ballot has been reduced from 180 days to 11 weeks before an election.
The deadline to submit an application has also been moved earlier. Instead of returning an application by the Friday before election day, SB 202 now requires it to be submitted by two Fridays prior. Republican sponsors of the bill and local election officials argue that this change will reduce the number of ballots rejected due to late arrivals.
Counties will begin mailing out absentee ballots about three weeks later than before, starting four weeks before the election.
Requesting and returning a ballot will now require new ID rules: either your driver’s license number, state ID number, or, if you don’t have those, a copy of acceptable voter ID. The law also allows for applications to be returned online, after the Secretary of State’s office launched an online request portal using your driver’s license number or state ID number ahead of November’s general election.
Poll workers will use that information, plus your name, date of birth, and address, to verify your identity, and you will sign an oath swearing that everything is correct. This is a change from recent procedure that would check your signature on the application with those on file.
State and local governments are no longer allowed to send unsolicited applications, and third-party groups that send applications have new rules to follow, too. Their applications must be clearly marked as being “NOT an official government publication” that it is “NOT a ballot,” and must clearly state which group is sending the blank request.
Plus, third-party groups are only allowed to send applications to voters who have not already requested or voted an absentee ballot. The groups potentially face a penalty for each duplicate sent.
The actual absentee ballot and envelopes will look different, as well. SB 202 requires absentee ballots to be printed on special security paper, and your precinct name will now be included along with precinct ID printed at the top. Once you fill out your choices by filling in the circles for your choices, you will place it in an envelope that will have your name, signature, driver’s license or state ID number (or last four digits of your Social Security number), and date of birth. The envelope will be designed so that sensitive personal information will be hidden once it is sealed.
Military and overseas voters will have an additional set of absentee ballots mailed to them with their regular ballots — ranked choice instant-runoff ballots. Georgia’s runoffs will now be four weeks long instead of nine weeks, but federal law requires ballots to those voters be sent out by 45 days before a federal election. So now, those voters will be given these ranked choice ballots, where they rank their choices for certain races in the event they head to a runoff, and send them back with their primary or general election ballots.
Secure absentee ballot drop boxes — which did not exist a year ago — are now officially part of state law, but not without some new changes. The law now requires all 159 counties to have at least one drop box, caps the number of boxes at one per 100,000 active voters or one for every early voting site (whichever is smaller), and moves them inside early voting sites instead of outside on government property. Additionally, the drop boxes will only be accessible during early voting days and hours instead of 24/7.
The State Election Board authorized drop boxes using the emergency rule process because of the coronavirus pandemic, and even that process is now being tweaked. The board must provide more notice of proposed emergency rules and has a much more limited scope in which it can enact those rules.
Changes to Early Voting
One of the most significant changes in the bill would expand early voting access for most counties, adding an additional mandatory Saturday and formally codifying Sunday voting hours as optional. Counties can have early voting open as long as 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at minimum. If you live in a larger metropolitan county, you might not notice a change. For most other counties, you will have an extra weekend day, and your weekday early voting hours will likely be longer.
If you live in Fulton County, you’ll no longer be able to use one of two mobile voting buses the county purchased last year to help with long lines. While a 2019 omnibus allowed early voting sites to be more locations, including places that are normally election day polls, the Republican-led legislature has now written laws that expressly prohibits a mobile poll except during an emergency declared by the governor.
For polling place changes or closures, the law now requires better notice of those changes, including a 4-by-4-foot sign that shows where the new location is.
Another new rule that affects both in-person early voting and election day voting would prohibit anyone except poll workers from handing out water to voters in line, and outlaw passing out food and water to voters within 150 feet of the building that serves as a poll, inside a polling place Source: GPB
