Q&A on the News

Q: Has the state of Georgia set a precedent by allowing voter registration for a runoff after the original date established for voter registration for a special election? Can this same voter registration policy established by the courts be applied to a runoff in a general election? —David A. Manecke, Mableton

A: Charles S. Bullock III, a University of Georgia professor of political science who specializes in legislative politics, elections and electoral systems, told Q&A on the News that he expects the answer is “yes.”

“I see no reason that a judge would rule differently in a runoff for a special election than for a regular primary runoff or a general election runoff. The greatest impact will be in primary runoffs, since we have very few general election runoffs and relatively few special election runoffs,” wrote Bullock, the Richard B. Russell Professor of Political Science.

The impact may be limited largely to federal offices, he added. Federal law requires a minimum window for overseas voters to return ballots in federal elections, but there is no such mandate for state elections. As we have just seen, Bullock wrote, the time between the first and second vote in the election to fill Judson Hill’s state Senate seat was much shorter than the nine weeks required between a first and second round of voting for a federal office, such as the U.S. House or Senate.

“For non-federal runoffs, there would not be time to re-open registration and still have it close 30 days before the runoff,” he wrote.