Nearly half of Hall County’s registered voters have requested an absentee ballot for the June 9 primary, and the numbers are likely to go higher with still weeks before the deadline.
Hall County elections officials have begun to send absentee ballots to the more than 60,000 voters who requested them, spokeswoman Katie Crumley said. The county has 125,650 active registered voters.
"This has been an unprecedented election season that started with the implementation of new voting equipment," Lori Wurtz, Hall County’s election director, said. "That set of challenges was quickly overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic."
Absentee ballot requests must be received by June 5. Completed ballots must be received by the elections office by the time the polls close at 7 p.m. on June 9.
Record numbers of Georgia voters, like those in Hall, are expected to cast ballots by mail, rather than going to their poll precinct and risk catching the coronavirus. The Secretary of State’s office last month sent absentee ballot request forms to all 6.9 million registered voters in the state as a potential way to reduce crowds at polling places on election day. Statewide, more than 1 million request forms have been returned so far. Normally, about 5 percent of voters vote via absentee ballots.
"Voters who request an absentee ballot will notice that their ballot still contains the May 19 date," Wurtz said. "We want voters to know this date was intentionally left as May 19, and in no way compromises their ability to vote or the ability for their vote to be counted."
In addition to the local, legislative and congressional races on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots, voters can also vote in the presidential preference primary, which was delayed from March. The presidential primary does not carry as much weight as it might have in March. The de facto nominee of both parties have already been selected in Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.
Anyone who voted early in the presidential primary before it was postponed will not be allowed to vote in that primary again. The original vote will be counted, and voters can still choose to vote in the local contests.
Voters have several ways to return their completed absentee ballot. It can be mailed back to the elections office, it can be dropped off at the elections office or it can be inserted into a drop box that will be available in some counties, including Hall County. Starting Monday, a drop box will be available outside the Hall County Government Center on Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville.
On Friday, a federal judge ruled that requiring voters to put postage on mailed absentee ballots for the June primary does not constitute a poll tax. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg said the state would have difficultly removing the postage requirement so close to the election and it might confuse voters who had already gotten their ballots in the mail.
The lawsuit was filed by a group that alleged requiring postage on the returned ballots created a barrier to voters who did not want to buy stamps.
The U.S. Postal Service previously has said it will deliver ballots, even if the sender does not include postage.
Voters who still prefer to vote in person will have that option. State law required that in-person precincts must be open during the three weeks of early voting and on election day.
In Hall County, some voters may notice some inconsistencies on their ballots. Hall County is part of the Ninth Congressional District, but ballot headings call if the first district. The candidate names are correct.
"The heading error will have no effect on the tabulation of those ballots," said Wurtz.
And some ballots in the cities of Gainesville and Buford incorrectly include races for Hall County Board of Education posts. City residents are not eligible to vote in county school board races, and any votes casts by city residents will not be counted. Approximately 1,200 out of the 125,650 active, registered voters are potentially affected by this issue.
