Don’t miss the next election: Tuesday is the last day to register in Georgia

Tuesday is the last day to register to vote in Georgia’s May 22 elections, and every pending registration deadline is a reminder that lots of things can hold you up at the polls.

For example, if you have not voted since 2012, you may have been purged from the voter rolls, and need to re-register. If you have married and changed your name or moved, and the information on your identification does match your voter registration, you may be asked to fill out another registration form at the poll.

So it’s a good idea to check your voter status now. You can do that online at Georgia’s “My Voter Page,” www.mvp.sos.ga.gov, or call the Muscogee elections office at 706-653-4392.

You can register to vote at the elections office website, www.columbusga.org/elections, at the Georgia Secretary of State’s “My Voter Page,” at the driver’s license bureau, at any library branch, and at the county elections office on the second floor of the Citizens Service Center, off Macon Road at 311 Citizens Way.

Registrations mailed to Muscogee County Elections and Registrations at P.O. Box 1340, Columbus, Ga., 31902, are accepted as long as they’re postmarked by Tuesday’s date.

Teens who are at least 17½ may register to vote, though they must be 18 to cast ballots. The law also requires Columbus voters to be U.S. citizens who live in Muscogee County. They can’t register to vote if a judge has found them mentally incompetent or if they have not finished serving a sentence for a felony conviction.

Pick a ballot

Columbus voters will have a lot to decide this year: Besides races for governor and other state executives, the state House and Senate and U.S. Congress, Muscogee County will have elections for mayor, the five odd-numbered Columbus Council seats plus a special election for citywide Post 10, the four even-numbered school board districts and the school board’s at-large post.

Thirty candidates in 11 contested races are running for those local offices.

By typing in your voter information at Georgia’s “My Voter Page,” you can view sample ballots, and decide whether you want a Republican, Democratic or nonpartisan ballot.

You must choose one, because you cannot vote in both party primaries, and if you pick a nonpartisan ballot, you won’t get to vote in either party’s primary.

Georgians do not register by party, but if you choose a party ballot in the primary, you can’t switch to vote in the other party’s runoff, should one ensue. But if you pick a nonpartisan ballot during the primary, you may vote in either party’s runoff. You also may vote in either party’s runoff if you didn’t vote during the primary.

Absentee ballots now are being mailed to voters who requested them, and that has led to a mistake: The vendor hired to mail ballots to temporary addresses, such as places where voters are vacationing or working away from home, twice sent the same ballot to 13 voters’ permanent home addresses.

Muscogee Board of Elections and Registrations Executive Director Nancy Boren said those voters have been notified of the error. Were they to cast both ballots, the duplication would be obvious, and one ballot would be discarded, she said.

“Muscogee is utilizing a new automated ballot mailing service that will allow us to track ballots through the mail process,” she wrote in an email. “During a routine audit by election staff, it was discovered that in the first upload of absentee-by-mail voter processing, duplicate uploads were processed for 13 voters and ‘mail to’ temporary addresses were not picked up by the mail service company. These 13 voters have been notified and the upload process has been changed by the vendor to identify mailing addresses and duplicates.”

Anyone else who’d like a mail-in absentee ballot may request it at the “My Voter Page,” where they can download the absentee application, fill it out, and email it to nboren@columbusga.org, fax it to 706-225-4394, or mail it to Muscogee County Elections and Registrations, P.O. Box 1340, Columbus, Ga., 31902.

The schedule

From April 30 through May 18, advance in-person voting will be held in the community room of Columbus’ Citizens Service Center, 311 Citizens Way, where voters may cast ballots 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.

All 25 city voting precincts will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, May 22, for the state party primaries and local nonpartisan races. Only one local polling place is changing: Residents who previously voted at Eddy Middle School or the National Infantry Museum off South Lumpkin Road now will vote at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 1953 Torch Hill Road.

A candidate must get more than 50 percent of the total vote to avoid a runoff. That may be a challenge in some local races, as six candidates are running for Columbus mayor and three each are seeking the Columbus Council citywide Post 10 seat, the council District 7 seat, the District 6 school board seat and the District 2 school board post. If a runoff is necessary, it will be July 24.

After the state primaries and local elections are over, this will be the schedule for the rest of the year:

• From June 25 through June 29, from 9 a.m. to noon, candidates may qualify at the Muscogee elections office for a special election Nov. 6 to replace the late Ann Hardman as Muscogee Superior Court Clerk.
• Oct. 9 will be the deadline to register to vote in the November general election.
• From Oct. 15 through Nov. 2, advance in-person voting will be held in the Citizens Service Center.
• Nov. 6 will be Election Day for the general election.
• Dec. 4 will be when any runoffs are held.

This story was originally published April 22, 2018 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Don’t miss the next election: Tuesday is the last day to register in Georgia."