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Election administration encompasses a state's voting policies, procedures, and enforcement. These include voter identification requirements, early and absentee/mail-in voting provisions, voter list maintenance methods, and more. Each state's voting policies dictate who can vote and under what conditions.
Below, you will find details on the following election administration topics in Georgia:
In Georgia, polls are open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Eastern Time. In cities with a population greater than 300,000 people, polls remain open until 8 p.m. An individual who is in line at the time polls close must be allowed to vote.[2]
To vote in Georgia, one must be a citizen of the United States and a legal resident of their county. The voter must be at least 17.5 years of age at the time of registration and 18 at the time of the election, and not serving a sentence for a felony conviction.[3][4]
The deadline to register to vote is 29 days prior to the election. Registration can be completed online, in person, or by mail.[3]
In Georgia, eligible voters are automatically registered to vote when they conduct transactions at the Department of Driver Services. This automatic registration program began in 2016.[5][6]
Georgia has implemented an online voter registration system. Residents can register to vote by visiting this website.
Georgia does not allow same-day voter registration.
To register to vote in Georgia, you must be a resident of the state. State law does not specify a length of time for which you must have been a resident to be eligible.
A Georgia state law, passed in 2009, required voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. However, as of August 2024, the law had not been implemented.[7][8][9]
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot require proof of citizenship with federal registration forms. That meant states would need to create a separate registration system for state elections in order to require proof of citizenship.
In Georgia, an individual must attest that they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote. According to the state's voter registration application, a voter who provides false information on a voter registration application is guilty of a felony.[10] [9]
The site My Voter Page, run by the Georgia Secretary of State's office, allows residents to check their voter registration status online.
Georgia permits early voting. Learn more by visiting this website.
Early voting permits citizens to cast ballots in person at a polling place prior to an election. In states that permit no-excuse early voting, a voter does not have to provide an excuse for being unable to vote on Election Day. States that allow voters to cast no-excuse absentee/mail-in ballots in person are counted as no-excuse early voting states.
As of February 2024, 47 states and the District of Columbia permitted no-excuse early voting.
All voters are eligible to vote absentee/by-mail in Georgia. There are no special eligibility requirements for voting absentee. The ballot application deadline is 11 days before Election Day. A completed ballot must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.[11]
An absentee/mail-in ballot in Georgia must be received by the voter’s county election official by the time the polls close on Election Day in order to be counted. Ballots can be submitted by mail, in person, or to a drop box, by the voter or a family member or person living in the voter's household. A voted absentee/mail-in ballot of a voter with a physical disability may also be returned by a caregiver.[12]
Absentee/mail-in ballots in Georgia include a return envelope printed with an oath that the voter must sign in order for the ballot to be counted. If the envelope is missing a signature or election officials determine that the signature on the envelope does not match the voter’s signature already on file, the ballot will be rejected. Georgia law also requires voters to provide a driver's license, state identification card number, or social security number with their returned ballot.
Georgia law includes a cure provision allowing voters to fix a problem with the signature or other information on their ballot. Georgia law requires election officials to notify a voter whose absentee/mail-in ballot has been rejected. Voters have until the third day after the election to cure or fix the issues they have been notified about.[11][13]
Voters can use the My Voter Page website provided by the Georgia Secretary of State to check the status of their absentee/mail-in ballot and absentee/mail-in ballot application.
Georgia requires voters to present photo identification while voting in person or by mail/absentee.[14]
The following list of accepted ID was current as of August 2024. Click here for the Georgia Secretary of State's page on accepted ID to ensure you have the most current information.
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Voters can obtain a free voter ID card from any county registrar's office or Department of Driver Services Office. Click here for more information on obtaining a free voter ID card in Georgia.
As of April 2024, 35 states required voters to present identification in order to vote at the polls on Election Day. Of these states, 24 required voters to present identification containing a photograph, and 11 accepted other forms of identification. The remaining 16 states did not require voters to present identification in order to vote at the polls on Election Day.
Valid forms of identification differ by state. In certain states that require voters to provide identification, there may be exceptions that allow some voters to cast a ballot without providing an ID. To see more about these exceptions, see details by state. Commonly accepted forms of ID include driver's licenses, state-issued identification cards, and military identification cards.
Voters who do not have ID while voting may cast provisional ballots. See below for provisional ballot rules.
Voters in Georgia are given provisional ballots, or ballots requiring additional steps or information before they can be counted, under the following circumstances.[17][18]
1) If the voter does not have the proper identification, the voter has the right to cast a provisional ballot.
2) If the voter registered to vote by mail and did not provide any identification at the time and is unable to do so the first time the voter votes in person, the voter has the right to cast a provisional ballot.
3) If the voter’s name does not appear on the list of registered voters in the precinct, the voter has the right to cast a provisional ballot. If the voter is registered in the same county but appears at the wrong precinct during the period between 5:00 p.m. and the close of polls, the voter must "execute a sworn statement, witnessed by the poll official, stating that he or she is unable to vote at his or her correct polling place prior to the closing of the polls and giving the reason therefor" before voting a provisional ballot.
4) If "the polling place is kept open after 7:00 p.m. because of a court order, anyone arriving after 7:00 p.m. will vote by provisional ballot."[17]
A provisional ballot is accepted in the following circumstances:[17]
A provisional ballot is rejected in the following circumstances:[19]
Do you need information about elections in your area? Are you looking for your local election official? Click here to visit the U.S. Vote Foundation and use their election official lookup tool. |
A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Georgia utilizes an open primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.[20][12]
For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.
In Georgia, employers must grant employees two hours of unpaid leave at the beginning or end of working hours for voting, provided they have been notified by employees. State law says the following:
“ | Each employee in this state shall, upon reasonable notice to his or her employer, be permitted by his or her employer to take any necessary time off from his or her employment to vote in any municipal, county, state, or federal political party primary or election for which such employee is qualified and registered to vote on the day on which such primary or election is held; provided, however, that such necessary time off shall not exceed two hours; and provided, further, that, if the hours of work of such employee commence at least two hours after the opening of the polls or end at least two hours prior to the closing of the polls, then the time off for voting as provided for in this Code section shall not be available. The employer may specify the hours during which the employee may absent himself or herself as provided in this Code section.[21][16] | ” |
As of September 2024, 28 states required employers to grant employees time off to vote. Within these 28 states, policies varied as to whether that time off must be paid and how much notice must be given.
In Georgia, people convicted of a felony are unable to vote until the completion of their sentence, including prison, probation and parole. Voting rights are automatically restored once the sentence is completed.[22]
Voting rights for people convicted of a felony vary from state to state. In the majority of states, people convicted of a felony cannot vote while they are incarcerated but may regain the right to vote upon release from prison or at some point thereafter.[23]
All states have rules under which they maintain voter rolls—or, check and remove certain names from their lists of registered voters. Most states are subject to the parameters set by The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).[24] The NVRA requires states to make efforts to remove deceased individuals and individuals who have become ineligible due to a change of address. It prohibits removing registrants from voter lists within 90 days of a federal election due to change of address unless a registrant has requested to be removed, or from removing people from voter lists solely because they have not voted. The NVRA says that states may remove names from their registration lists under certain other circumstances and that their methods for removing names must be uniform and nondiscriminatory.[25]
Georgia law authorizes local election officials to remove the names of voters from the registered voting list if an individual:[26]
Voters who the Georgia Secretary of State’s office determines to have moved by using National Change of Address data are sent address confirmation notices. If the voter does not respond to the notice, the secretary of state’s office is to place them on an inactive voter registration list.[27]
In odd-numbered years, state law requires the secretary of state’s office to identify all voters with whom there has been "no contact" within the past five preceding calendar years. State law defines "no contact" to mean "that the elector has not filed an updated voter registration card, has not filed a change of name or address, has not signed a petition which is required by law to be verified by the election superintendent of a county or municipality or the Secretary of State, has not signed a voter's certificate, has not submitted an absentee/mail-in ballot application or voted an absentee/mail-in ballot, and has not confirmed the elector's continuation at the same address during the preceding five calendar years." These voters are to be sent confirmation of address notices. If the notice is not returned, the voter is placed on an inactive voter registration list.[28]
Inactive voters are not included in calculations for election administration procedures. Inactive voters are eligible to vote under Georgia law but must verify their address at their polling place. If a voter remains in inactive status through two general elections, their registration is to be canceled.[27]
According to its website, ERIC is a nonprofit corporation that is governed by a board of member-states. These member states submit voter registration and motor vehicle registration information to ERIC. ERIC uses this information, as well as Social Security death records and other sources, to provide member states with reports showing voters who have moved within their state, moved out of their state, died, have duplicate registrations in their state, or are potentially eligible to vote but are not yet registered. ERIC's website describes its funding as follows: "Members fund ERIC. New members pay a one-time membership fee of $25,000, which is reserved for technology upgrades and other unanticipated expenses. Members also pay annual dues. Annual dues cover operating costs and are based, in part, on the citizen voting age population in each state."[29]
By 2022, 33 states and the District of Columbia had joined ERIC. As of May 2024, 24 states and the District of Columbia were members in the ERIC program.[30]
As of August 2024, Georgia was a participating member in ERIC.
Georgia state law requires post-election audits. Local election superintendents conduct a manual inspection of randomly selected paper ballots. The audit must be completed before certification of the election and released to the public within 48 hours of completion. As of August 2024, Georgia was also piloting a risk-limiting auditing program.[31]
Post-election audits check that election results tallied by a state's voting system match results from paper records, such as paper ballots filled out by voters or the paper records produced by electronic voting machines. Post-election audits are classified into two categories: audits of election results—which include traditional post-election audits as well as risk-limiting audits—and procedural audits.[32][33]
Typically, traditional post-election audits are done by recounting a portion of ballots, either electronically or by hand, and comparing the results to those produced by the state's voting system. In contrast, risk-limiting audits use statistical methods to compare a random sample of votes cast to election results instead of reviewing every ballot. The scope of procedural audits varies by state, but they typically include a systematic review of voting equipment, performance of the voting system, vote totals, duties of election officials and workers, ballot chain of custody, and more.
As of October 2024, 49 states and the District of Columbia had some form of post-election audit by law. Of these, 35 states and the District of Columbia required traditional post-election audits, while six states required risk-limiting post-election audits by law. Eight states used some other form of post-election audit, including procedural post-election audits.[34][35]
This article contains a developing news story. Ballotpedia staff are checking for updates regularly. To inform us of new developments, email us at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Ahead of the November 5, 2024, general election, the Georgia State Election Board proposed and adopted a series of rule changes related to election administration in the state. As of October 30, the board had adopted at least 10 new rules since August, seven of those had been blocked by Fulton County Superior Court judges, and the remaining three went into effect on October 22. Democracy Docket, which says it "delivers detailed analysis and expert commentary on voting rights and election litigation and policy," reported the rules as follows:[36][37]
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As of October 30, at least seven lawsuits had been filed in response to the new rules.[37] As of that date, judges had issued rulings in the following cases:
The board consists of five members, including one nonpartisan chairperson appointed by a joint resolution of both houses of the Georgia General Assembly, one member appointed by the Georgia House of Representatives, one by the Georgia State Senate, and one member each appointed by the Republican Party of Georgia and the Democratic Party of Georgia.[43] As of October 2024, the board consisted of three Republicans, one Democrat, and the nonpartisan chair who was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to fill a vacancy.[44]
The secretary of state chaired the State Election Board until 2021, when the Georgia General Assembly adopted SB 202, an omnibus elections bill that removed the secretary from the board, among other changes.[45]
According the Georgia Secretary of State's website, the State Elections Board "is entrusted with a wide variety of responsibilities and authority regarding the protection of the precious right to cast a ballot."[46] These responsibilities include:[46]
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On August 27, 2021, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit unanimously affirmed a lower court's decision finding that a Georgia law requiring voters to pay the price of postage for returning absentee/mail-in ballots does not constitute an illegal poll tax. The plaintiffs had argued that requiring absentee/mail-in voters to pay the price of postage amounted to levying a poll tax, violating the Fourteenth and Twenty-Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The defendants (state and local election officials) moved to dismiss. A U.S. District Court granted the motion to dismiss, citing "[t]he fact that any registered voter may vote in Georgia on election day without purchasing a stamp, and without undertaking any 'extra steps' besides showing up at the voting precinct and complying with generally applicable election regulations." The plaintiffs then appealed to the Eleventh Circuit.[47]
The Eleventh Circuit panel—comprising Judges Elizabeth Branch (a Donald Trump (R) appointee), Britt Grant (another Trump appointee), and Edward Carnes (a George H.W. Bush (R) appointee)—unanimously affirmed the lower court's ruling. Branch, writing for the court, said, "While voting often involves incidental costs like transportation, parking, child care, taking time off work, and—for those who choose to vote absentee by mail—the cost of a postage stamp, those incidental costs do not mean that Georgia has imposed an unconstitutional poll tax or fee on its voters."[47]
In response to the ruling, Sean Young, legal director for the Georgia affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union (which was involved in the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs), said, "We are disappointed in the outcome. The ACLU of Georgia will continue to protect the sacred fundamental right to vote." Regarding the possibility of an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, Young said, "All legal options remain on the table."[48]
On March 25, 2021, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) signed SB202 into law, enacting a series of changes to the state's election administration procedures, including (but not limited to) the following:[49]
The full text of the enacted bill can be accessed here.
In its original form, SB202 would have barred persons and entities from sending unsolicited absentee/mail-in ballot applications to voters who had already requested, been issued, or voted an absentee/mail-in ballot. On March 25, 2021, the Georgia House of Representatives approved an amended version of the bill (which included the aforementioned changes) by a vote of 74. Later that day, the Georgia State Senate concurred in the House amendments by a vote of 34-20. Both the House and Senate votes split along party lines, with Republicans voting in favor of the bill and Democrats voting against it.[49][50]
Upon signing the bill into law, Kemp said, "After the November election last year, I knew like so many of you that significant reforms to our state elections were needed. When voting in person in the state of Georgia, you must have a photo ID. It only makes sense for the same standard to apply to absentee ballots as well."[51]
Ballotpedia has tracked the following ballot measures relating to election and campaign policy in Georgia.
The table below lists bills related to election administration that have been introduced during (or carried over to) the current legislative session in Georgia. The following information is included for each bill:
Bills are organized alphabetically, first by state and then by bill number. The table displays up to 100 results by default. To view additional results, use the arrows in the upper-right corner of the table. For more information about a particular bill, click the bill number. This will open a separate page with additional information.
State election laws are changing. Keeping track of the latest developments in all 50 states can seem like an impossible job.
Here's the solution: Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker.
Ballotpedia's Election Administration Tracker sets the industry standard for ease of use, flexibility, and raw power. But that's just the beginning of what it can do:
The Ballot Bulletin is a weekly email that delivers the latest updates on election policy. The Ballot Bulletin tracks developments in election policy around the country, including legislative activity, big-picture trends, and recent news. Each email contains in-depth data from our Election Administration Legislation Tracker. You'll also be able to track relevant legislation, with links to and summaries of the bills themselves.
Click here to view recent issues and subscribe.
In order to get on the ballot in Georgia, a candidate for state or federal office must meet a variety of state-specific filing requirements and deadlines. These regulations, known as ballot access laws, determine whether a candidate or party will appear on an election ballot. These laws are set at the state level. A candidate must prepare to meet ballot access requirements well in advance of primaries, caucuses, and the general election.
There are three basic methods by which an individual may become a candidate for office in a state.
This article outlines the steps that prospective candidates for state-level and congressional office must take in order to run for office in Georgia. For information about filing requirements for presidential candidates, click here. Information about filing requirements for local-level offices is not available in this article (contact state election agencies for information about local candidate filing processes).
Redistricting is the process by which new congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn. Each of Georgia's 14 United States Representatives and 236 state legislators are elected from political divisions called districts. United States Senators are not elected by districts, but by the states at large. District lines are redrawn every 10 years following completion of the United States census. The federal government stipulates that districts must have nearly equal populations and must not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.[52][53][54][55]
Georgia was apportioned 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2020 census, the same number it received after the 2010 census. Click here for more information about redistricting in Georgia after the 2020 census.
In Georgia, both congressional and state legislative district lines are drawn by the state legislature. A simple majority in each chamber is required to approve redistricting plans, which are subject to veto by the governor.[56]
The Georgia Constitution requires that state legislative districts be contiguous. There are no similar requirements for congressional districts.[56][57]
Individuals seeking additional information about voting provisions in Georgia can contact the following local, state, and federal agencies.
Georgia County Election Offices
Georgia Secretary of State Elections Division
Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission
U.S. Election Assistance Commission
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