To vote in the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs, Georgians must register by Monday
The dual Senate runoff races in Georgia have thrust the state into a national spotlight, attracting out of state organizers, millions of dollars in campaign and PAC donations and the attention of political figures from Barack Obama to Donald Trump.
The most recent recount of the Nov. 3 election, the third time Georgia’s presidential votes have been tallied, just wrapped up last week, but already an important deadline in the Jan. 5 runoff election looms.
Dec. 7 is the deadline for Georgians to register to vote, including military or overseas absentee voters.
More than 7.6 million Georgians were registered to vote for the Nov. 3 election, and almost 5 million of them voted for President: 2,474,507 for Joe Biden and 2,461,837 for Donald Trump. Beginning Dec. 14, Georgians will decide between incumbent Republicans Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler and their Democrat challengers, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
The races will determine which party controls the Senate: a win by either Republican candidate would give the GOP a slim majority, while a Democrat sweep in Georgia would split the chamber right down the middle, meaning Vice President-elect Kamala Harris could cast a tie-breaking vote, should senators vote along party lines.
How to register
Georgians can register to vote, or check their registration status by visiting registertovote.sos.ga.gov. A form can be completed either online, or printed off and mailed to the Secretary of State’s office. A valid form of identification, such as a state-issued driver’s license or U.S. passport, is required.
You must be 18 years old to vote. However, if you turn 18 on or before Jan. 5, you can register to vote.
Early voting runs from Dec. 14-31. More than 1 million Georgians have requested absentee ballots for the upcoming election. While a firm absentee ballot request deadline has not been issues by the Secretary of State, voters are advised to request their ballots as quickly as possible, to ensure they receive them and have time to return them in time. Visit georgia.gov/vote-absentee-ballot for more on voting absentee.
Military, overseas vote deadline
In a runoff that is anticipated to be razor-thin, there could be as many as 26,000 votes at stake from military and overseas voters.
A total of 18,008 overseas ballots were received on time by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office in the general election. An additional 8,410 ballots were requested but had not been returned as of the general election’s Nov. 6 deadline, according to Secretary of State data. A breakdown of how many of those total votes were cast by service members, and how many were cast by overseas civilians, such as military spouses or Georgia residents working abroad, was not immediately available.
Any military or overseas absentee voter who did not register for the general election and wishes to vote in the runoff has until Dec. 7 to do so, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program. To be counted, ballots must be postmarked by Jan. 5, and received by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office by Jan. 8, according to FVAP.
The Military Vote Coalition, a non-partisan organization focused on helping service members and their spouses vote, has been doing outreach to Georgia’s overseas and military absentee voters to remind them about the runoff deadlines, but also to target the voters who requested a ballot in the general election but didn’t send it back, said coalition founder Sarah Streyder.
“There is still a good chunk of folks who had, at least at one point, the intention of voting in the general and didn’t end up returning their ballots for one reason or another,” Streyder said. “What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to encourage folks in that category — please let us know, what was your trouble spot?
“If it’s just that you changed your mind and chose not to vote, fine. But if it’s ‘Oh, I realized I needed to print out my form and I didn’t have a printer. Or, if it’s ‘I tried to send back my ballot and mail delivery times are so delayed it just didn’t get there in time.’ Whatever the problem is, we want to be able to prevent those problems this next time around.”
Election SOS fellow Alex Perry contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 7:00 AM.