The instructions on some Georgia absentee ballots are wrong. Here’s what you need to know.
The instructions for some absentee ballots that have been sent to Georgians have a mistake that is confusing voters.
Previously, absentee ballots came with two envelopes: one large yellow envelope and one smaller, white envelope that was used as a privacy envelope.
“People who are familiar with voting that are looking for that white envelope and people familiar with it are going, ‘Where’s my little white envelope?’ It’s not there,” said Mike Kaplan, chairperson of the Board of Elections, in a meeting Thursday.
The Secretary of State’s office replaced the white envelope with a “privacy sleeve,” which is a white sheet of paper with “Official absentee ballot, ballot must be enclosed” typed in large, bold letters.
However, the instructions to submit an absentee ballot still mention the white envelope.
“After voting your ballot, enclose and securely seal the ballot in the smaller of the two envelopes provided, which is white and on which is printed ‘Official Absentee Ballot,’” reads the instructions.
“The instructions are correct, but… there is no envelope. It’s a sheet of paper. The new ones will have the correct instructions which will say take the sheet of paper and fold it and place it in the big envelope and mail it in,” Kaplan said.
People are instructed to fold the “privacy sleeve” around their absentee ballot and place the ballot with the sleeve in the large envelope.
“The decision to use a privacy sleeve rather than an envelope was a design decision made by the vendor in order to save time and money. This process was set up quickly in order to deal with increased volume of absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are working with the vendor to update the instructions,” said Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, in a statement.
Macon-Bibb County has mailed 19,146 ballots and has had 1,174 returned. The Secretary of State’s office mailed more than 107,000 absentee ballot applications to registered voters in active status.
Kaplan said he was told that it doesn’t matter if the secrecy sleeve is used or not. The ballots will still be counted.
The large envelope looks slightly different from previous elections. It has a large, yellow bar on the left side of the envelope, and the rest of the envelope is white rather than having a solid yellow envelope.
“Voters should know that in no way will this minor change from an envelope to a security sleeve affect their vote being counted. Simply fold the security sleeve over your voted ballot, and insert them both into the return envelope,” Fuchs said, in the statement.