Administration of elections under Georgia’s new election law will make some aspects easier but will be more challenging without additional poll workers, Dr. Janet Oliva, chair of the county elections board, told Towns and Union County Democrats at a combined monthly meeting on Thursday.
Dr. Oliva, who was joined at the meeting by county Elections Supervisor Rachel Edwards, said some aspects of the new state law — known as Senate Bill 202 — in her opinion will make upcoming municipal elections in 2021 and state and federal elections in 2022 easier for the small Towns County staff to handle, but without more poll workers some of the shorter deadlines set by the new law will be challenging.
“We have been working with a staffing shortage since before the 2020 election but have not been able to increase it,” Dr. Oliva said. The elections office staff is supplemented as needed by poll workers who are paid by the county. Although the county is budgeted to hire more poll workers, Dr. Oliva said the elections office is constantly recruiting poll workers to meet the needs of each election.
“We don’t yet have enough poll workers for the municipal elections this fall,” Dr. Oliva said. However, she added the county is in the process of recruiting poll workers to ensure the city elections are managed properly and in compliance with state law.
The county elections office provides on-site training for poll workers, who are compensated for their time by the county.
One new deadline set by the new election law that will challenge the county elections staff is a requirement to report election results as of 10 p.m. to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office on election day. Dr. Oliva explained that every county will have to report the number of votes counted by 10 p.m., not that this would be a county’s final vote tally. Also, the county must certify election results in 5 days after the election versus previously 10 days.
Some of the most far-reaching changes in the new election law apply to absentee ballots, which Dr. Oliva said were related directly to the “unprecedented” number of absentee ballots cast in 2020 when the COVID pandemic was raging. “We were unprepared for that volume and it was very challenging,” she said.
She assured the Towns and Union voters that “rollover ballots” are still available to voters age 65 and over and to disabled voters by marking their absentee ballot application accordingly. The rollover allows the eligible voter to continue to receive absentee ballots throughout the voting cycle without reapplying.
The earliest an absentee ballot may be requested is now 11 weeks prior to an election. Previously, the start date was 180 days. The last day to apply for to an absentee ballot is now two Fridays before an election. The previous deadline was the Friday before the election. Dr. Oliva said the extra week’s processing time provided by the new law will “help to ensure the integrity of the election.”
Voters will have to be proactive in requesting an absentee ballot, as under the new law state and local governments cannot send out unsolicited applications, as occurred in 2020.
Dr. Oliva said the elections office will start mailing out requested absentee ballots four weeks prior to the election. A voter who waits until two Fridays prior to the election to request an absentee ballot could have less than two weeks to return the completed ballot to the elections office, Dr. Oliva confirmed in response to a question. Absentee ballots must be received in the elections office by 7 p.m. on election day.
Dr. Oliva noted that historically, in Towns County, the U.S. Postal Service has delivered absentee ballots directly to the county elections office without requiring them to make the journey to Atlanta and back as does other mail posted locally.
The county’s single drop box will be available only inside the elections office in Hiawassee only during the office’s business hours, which typically are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., according to Ms. Edwards. The drop box also will be available during early voting hours, including two Saturdays. In Towns County, early voting hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. but may be extended by the board of elections. Election-day voting hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
In response to a question about the possibility of extending or changing either office hours or early voting hours to allow people who work during the day more opportunities to deposit absentee ballots, Dr. Oliva said if the local elections board decided to do that, funding for the staff needed for those hours would have to be provided by the county.
