Tuesday, April 24, is the last day to register to vote in the May 22 elections. This includes both the state, congressional and Bulloch County election and the city of Statesboro’s special election in City Council District 5.

Advanced voting will open April 30.

Voters who are already registered and vote regularly remain registered. But voters who move to another county or city must register locally, and even those who move within the county are required to change their addresses with the county voter registration office.

“Whoever moves, even to a new apartment number, we need to have a change, because that’s a different location,” said Charlene Mann, a Bulloch County Elections and Registration Office staff member. “Anybody who came into the county, moved from a different county, a different state, they need to change their address by the 24th.”

Would-be voters can visit Georgia’s “My Voter” webpage, www.mvp.sos.ga.gov, to check whether they are properly registered, get directions to the appropriate polling place, and view a sample ballot. All of these services, and sample ballots, are also available at the Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration Office, in the County Annex at 113 N. Main St., Statesboro.

Check if inactive

Any citizens who have not voted since before 2016 — the year of the presidential election — should check that they are still registered, Bulloch County Elections Supervisor Patricia Lanier Jones advises. Voters who have not voted in more than three years can be placed on an “inactive” list, and if after remaining on that list for three years they still have not voted, state election officials can remove them from the rolls entirely.

So officially, the loss of registration should only occur after six years of not voting, but Jones said she prefers that people who know they haven’t voted recently check to be on the safe side.

“It depends on how it falls (in the election cycles),” she said. “So if they have not voted since prior to 2016, they need to check their voter registration, because 73, almost 74 percent of the people voted in 2016.”

Early voting

In-person advanced voting using the touchscreen machines will be available Monday through Friday each week beginning April 30 and ending May 18, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the County Annex. For one week, May 14–18, in-person early voting will also be available in the Honey Bowen Building, at 1 Max Lockwood Drive in the Fair Road Park, also from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Additionally, there will be one opportunity for Saturday voting, May 12, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the Bulloch County Annex only.

Traditional voting precincts countywide will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 22.

T-SPLOST to governor

Statewide, races for governor and lieutenant governor top the ballots in both the Democratic and Republican primaries. Republicans as well as Democrats also have choices for the 12th District congressional race.

Bulloch County’s referendum on a proposed new 1 percent sales tax for transportation projects, called T-SPLOST, is on the nonpartisan ballot, which will be issued along with both the Democratic and the Republican ballots.

Two districts have contested races for their Bulloch County Board of Education seats, which are nonpartisan.

There are races for Board of Commissioners seats in both commission districts, which comprise the entire county. But at this point the contested primary races for commissioner are all on the Republican ballot, with some races to continue to the November general election because they involve both Republican and Democratic contenders.

For governor, Republican-ballot voters will chose from seven candidates. Democratic-ballot voters will select one of two different gubernatorial candidates.

Can’t vote bipartisan

Because the May 22 statewide and county election includes party primaries requiring a choice of ballots, voters will not be able to vote in every race they might wish.

For example, the contest between District 160 incumbent state Rep. Jan Tankersley and challenger Robert Busbee will appear only on the Republican ballot in that district.

But the contest among candidates Francys Johnson and Trent Nesmith, both from Statesboro, and Robert Ingham, who is from Augusta, for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 12th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House will appear only on the Democrat ballot.

Voters who ask for the Republican ballot will get to choose between current U.S. Rep. Rick Allen and his Republican challenger, Eugene Yu, one of whom will go on to face one of the three Democrats in the  November general election.

Voting nonpartisan-only is also a choice. But any Bulloch voters who do this for the May 22 election will be limited to helping decide on the county T-SPLOST, a school board race if the voter lives in an affected district and some state Supreme Court and Appeals Court judgeships.

Voters’ party choice for the primaries is binding only through any resulting runoffs, which will be held July 24.

City special election

During the advanced voting days, the county’s locations for early voting will also be equipped for Statesboro’s separate, nonpartisan District 5 City Council special election, Jones said.

On May 22 the one place to vote in the city election will be Pittman Park United Methodist Church precinct, where there will be separate lines for the precinct’s city and county ballots.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.