Georgia law gives tight runoff vote window

2021 legislation poses disadvantage to Democrats, who tend to push early voting

ATLANTA — Under Georgia’s 2021 election law, there will be only four weeks before the upcoming runoff vote for the Senate between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican candidate Herschel Walker — with Thanksgiving in the middle. Many Georgians will be offered only five weekdays of early in-person voting beginning Nov. 28. And June’s primary runoffs showed time for mail ballots to be received and returned can be very tight.

Those changes could disadvantage Democrats, who tend to push early voting and vote-by-mail more than Republicans. Because the 2021 law makes it harder to apply for a mail ballot, Democrats urged supporters to vote in-person early October.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson said it will be challenging to reignite the kind of early voting enthusiasm that Democrats displayed ahead of the general election, when overall early voting set a new midterm record.

“We’ve [got] from Thanksgiving weekend to Tuesday, Dec. 6, to get these votes out, and there will be a lot of hard work over the holiday and the runup to the holiday season to make sure we get this vote out,” Johnson said. “I think voters are aware that our future is still in peril, and we can make a difference in Georgia for the sake of the nation. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.”

Stephen Lawson, who worked for former Sen. Kelly Loeffler ahead of her 2021 defeat to Warnock, recalled that even with a two-month period between the 2020 general election and the second round “you had voters who weren’t aware of the runoff date and had to be reminded that it wasn’t over.” Lawson now leads the 34N22 political action committee backing Walker.

The changes could produce lower turnout, and maybe a return to the old rules of Georgia runoffs before 2021, when Republicans had clear advantages.

“Republicans do better in getting their voters back out for a runoff election,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a lobbyist who was chief of staff to Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and later national finance co-chair for Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

No one who wasn’t on the rolls before Nov. 8 can register to vote now. The last day to register was Nov. 7.

Georgia’s 159 counties can open early voting sooner than Nov. 28 if they are able. But they can’t begin until the state certifies the general election, currently targeted for Nov. 21, said Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling.

But only 10 counties offered more than the mandated five days during June primary runoffs, the first statewide elections held with the shortened runoff period. Moreover, state law bars early in-person voting on a state holiday or the Saturday after a state holiday. Because both Thanksgiving and the following Friday are state holidays, there will be no Saturday voting offered before the runoff.

Some urban counties are likely to offer early in-person voting on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and the most ambitious counties might also offer voting on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving, if the race is certified Nov. 21.

Mail ballots can be requested now through Nov. 28. About 150,000 people who voted by mail in the November election will automatically be mailed a ballot for the runoff. But Associated Press reporting found some counties were slow to mail ballots before the primary runoff, raising questions about whether voters could receive and return them in time.