Election Woes
*Cover photo is of Ben Raffensperger, the Secretary of State of Georgia, photo credit: Branden Camp/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
I just want to know if anyone else has had as much of a headache as I have had with TRYING TO JUST VOTE. I presume not, because I’m currently out of the country, but now that EVERYONE in Georgia is being encouraged to vote in via absentee, I figured I would tell a little story about all the craziness and deadlines and lack of information that I have gone through. Think of it as a primer/timeline/guide/rant about voting - whether or not it be in the time of the Pandemic of ‘20 - as many of the issues I have faced here were pre-COVID. The pandemic has just magnified the inadequacies of our current system.
*A note about 2020 election dates. First, I’ll stick with pre-COVID-19 times:
March 24: Original Presidential Preference Primary (PPP) election
* must register 180 days before the election date, which for a March 24 election, the earliest date to register for absentee ballot was September 26, 2019
May 19: Original local/state election, also known as the General Primary Election
* 180 days prior to May 19, the earliest date to register for an absentee ballot was November 21, 2019
—BEGIN TIMELINE—
November 22, 2019: Armed with the above knowledge, I decided to make it easier on myself and the DeKalb election office by registering for both elections at the same time. So, I filled out 2 absentee applications, 1 for each election, and e-mailed both PDFs to voterreg@dekalbcountyga.gov on November 22, 2019. A friendly woman, Shari Hillman, replied that she had submitted my applications to the Absentee Department. Glenda Woods, the Election Coordinator for Voter Registration and Elections, then responded from absenteeballot@dekalbcountyga.gov. She told me to choose a party for both elections, that the “checkmark” box on the application form was not checked. I had checked them (and double-checked that I checked it) but it must have been an Adobe compatibility issue. Regardless, I informed her of my party choice, she thanked me, and that was that. (*Note: I know someone who had the same issue in Fulton County, where the checked box didn’t show up, but just in case, he wrote his party choice in the e-mail body. Regardless, he received no response and later found out through the My Voter Page website (mvp.sos.ga.gov) that his absentee application had been denied due to no party affiliation. Again, this was pre-coronavirus, back in December.)
Copy of my e-mail to the DeKalb Voter Registration Office on November 22.
February 4: Earliest date (49 days before the election) to submit absentee ballot for the PPP election on March 24.
*Note: mailed absentee ballot deadline is 4 days before the election (March 20). I think it must be received by this date, not just postmarked, but not certain about that.
February 8: Absentee ballot arrived for the PPP election on March 24.
—CORONAVIRUS HAPPENS/GETS BAD IN GEORGIA (first confirmed case in Georgia occurred on March 2)—
Announced on March 14 (10 days before PPP election): PPP pushed to same date as local/state election for a combined ballot: May 19 (Does this make the original March 20 deadline moot?)
Announced on March 24: the Secretary of State will be mailing absentee ballots to all registered Georgia voters (presumably, this also means those half million who have already registered absentee).
*The SoS office did not begin mailing out absentee forms to all 6.9 million registered Georgia voters until April 20, nearly a month later.
March 31: Earliest date (49 days before the election) to submit absentee ballot for the PPP election on May 19.
*Note: mailed absentee ballot deadline is 4 days before the election (May 15), again, not certain about this.
April 9: I receive the abovementioned absentee application (sent to all registered voters) in the mail for the election on May 19. *Note: I still received this even though I was already registered.
Also announced on April 9 (67 days before combined election): Both PPP and local/station election pushed back again to June 9 (Does this make both the original March 20 and May 15 deadlines moot?)
* earliest day to submit a filled-out ballot for the June 9 election is April 21.
April 18: filled out and mailed the original absentee ballot for the original March 24 election (because why not, even though it might be moot), and just in case, also filled out and mailed the application for absentee voting for the June 9 election (because why not, even though I’m already registered, who knows, they could have decided to throw the old one out).
April 20: Secretary of State office began mailing absentee ballot registrations to all registered voters, nearly a month after their announcement to do so, and weeks after the SoS had already announced an additional postponement of the election to be June 9.
April 21: again, earliest date (49 days before election) to submit absentee ballot for the combined election on June 9.
April 29: my absentee ballot for the postponed May 19 election arrived in the mail (will this even count if I fill it out?).
May 11: last day to register to vote absentee and still be able to vote on June 9 (I already registered (more than enough times), info just FYI).
June 5: my absentee ballot must be received by this date (4 days before the June 9 election)
So, I am left with these questions:
Does the original March 24 election ballot I filled out even count? In a word, it seems like “no.” The earliest date I could have returned it was the same day I received it, on February 8. Presidential candidates were dropping like flies, so I wanted to hold on to my ballot as long as possible and vote for a realistic nominee. (Now, unfortunately, we are down to 1 democratic candidate, so my logic for this is moot). This meant that I was still holding onto it when the Secretary of State announced the postponement of the March 24 election. If that hadn’t happened, I would have mailed it around March 16 to give it time to arrive by the March 20 deadline. Instead, I held on to it. What do I do with it? Do I just go ahead and fill it out and send it in anyway? That’s what I ended up doing, according to the AJC, anything arriving past March 24 will not be counted, and the only thing that will count will be on the new ballot. As of March 24, nearly 30,000 ballots for the PPP had yet to be returned (mine included).
Why did the Secretary of State mail out absentee registration forms to ALL of Georgia’s 7.2 million registered voters? By March 2, 14,000 absentee voters had mailed in ballots for the March 24 PPP, and as of March 24, an additional 30,000 ballots had yet to be returned (as mentioned above, I was in this category). No word on how many absentee ballots were mailed back between those two dates. If absolutely none, the max amount of absentee ballots that had at some point been mailed to voters was at least 44,000; but likely many more. Now all 44,000 (+) registered absentee voters are being sent the same paperwork (like me) and are likely just as confused about it as I am. If they ignore it because they’ve already registered, will their previous registration be canceled? Does everyone need to register again? I can’t find any sources that answer this question.
What is the difference between an in-person “early” vote and an in-person “absentee” vote? Are they the same? Different sources call these different things. I was always under the impression that early voting was in-person and that absentee was …not in-person. But some sources say there are two types of absentee: absentee mail and absentee in-person. Huh?
If it was announced on April 9 that the May 19 election would be postponed until June 9, then why were absentee registration forms sent out on April 20 for the now-obsolete May 19 election? It seems like that would have been adequate time to change the absentee registration form to say “for the election on June 9” rather than what is currently says, “for the election on May 19” to avoid mass confusion:
Application for absentee ballot for the May 19 election. Sent out on April 20, more than a week after the announcement that the election would be postponed until June 9. (Note circled date at top left of application form.)
4. Why can’t the election calendar be more clear? Much of the information on the Election Calendar page on the Georgia Secretary of State website is for people who want to run for office. That’s fine, but it garbles information that is only pertinent to the voter. Further, there are no deadlines listed for the mail-in ballot (e.g., the 4 days prior to the election deadline). I had to find that deadline on another, non-governmental website. It should definitely be listed here as well. Below, I have edited the document to list additional information in purple text.
And I haven’t even BEGUN to dig in to the ridiculousness of the new ballot itself. I’ll save that one for next time.
