allowed between a general election and a runoff election — drastically shortening the period during which many voters must request, receive and cast ballots. The law's narrowed time frame also effectively cuts the early in-person voting period, from a minimum of 16 days in 2020 to a minimum of 5 in 2022, while existing rules have ensured almost no new voters will be eligible to vote in the runoff.
“It was not just that the runoff date was moved up, it’s that the period to get so many steps done has been condensed,” said Danielle Lang, the senior director of the voting rights unit at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan voting watchdog group. The law, however, does not change an existing rule that voters must register at least 30 days before an election.will not be able to registerThat’s a stark difference from the landscape in the state in 2020 — that year both of the state’s U.S. Senate races advanced to a runoff that would determine control of the chamber — when candidates and outside groups rushed to register droves of new voters.
Under existing runoff procedures, most Georgians who want to cast an absentee mail-in ballot must first request such a ballot, in compliance with the law's new voter ID requirement. The deadline for local election officials to receive those absentee ballot applications is Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving.
Once voters receive their absentee ballots, they must choose their candidates and mail those ballots back, again in compliance with the voter ID requirement. Absentee mail-in ballots received before 7 p.m. on the day of the election — Dec. 6 — will be counted, per Georgia’s law. Voters may also deposit their absentee ballots in drop boxes.
Under a separate provision of SB 202, overseas and military absentee voters were provided a ranked choice voting ballot as their general election ballot weeks before the general election so that, in the event of a runoff, their vote would have already been mailed in.
Its not just the date - its systematic voter suppression.