Georgia citizens of voting age have until April 25 to register to vote or update their address and other information for the May 24 party primaries and nonpartisan general election. While it’s the last day to register, April 25 is also the first day that absentee ballots legally can be issued by mail, although you can already apply for one.

“Anybody that is new (to the county), has moved, changed their name or needs to have their address updated, those are the people who need to get registered or update or change their information,” said Bulloch County Election Supervisor Shontay Jones.

Locally, this can be done at the Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration staff at the Bulloch County Annex, 113 North Main St., Statesboro. Or voters statewide can check their registration status and register to vote through the online My Voter Page, www.mvp.sos.ga.gov.

“That’s not only a place where people can go and register or update their information, but they can also check and verify their voter status as well, and it also has their districts,” Jones said.

The My Voter Page offers a way to register directly, online, which requires entering the voter’s Georgia driver’s license number or state-issued ID number, or the option of printing out the registration form and submitting it at the county elections office or mailing it in.

No write-ins

Qualifying for the Democratic and Republican primaries and for nonpartisan offices ended two weeks ago, on March 11. Candidates wishing to run as nonpartisan write-in candidates then had until March 18 to publish a notice of intention and until Wednesday, March 23, to file an affidavit. No nonpartisan write-in candidates came forward in Bulloch County, Jones confirmed.

But with the deadlines passed, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office will now be moving forward with preparing the ballots.

Statewide candidates appearing on the separate Democratic and Republican ballots will include those for the parties’ nominations for governor and all state officials elected statewide, as well as a race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Raphael Warnock.

In Bulloch County, the one countywide local contest is the two-candidate nonpartisan race for Bulloch County State judge. The nonpartisan ballot will be provided to all voters, whether they choose the Democratic or the Republican ballot for the primary. There are also contested races for two partisan county commission seats and three nonpartisan school board seats in their particular districts.

Absentee ballots

Under the changes in Georgia’s voting laws enacted one year ago as Senate Bill 202, election officials are not allowed to accept requests for paper absentee ballots as early or as late as in past years.

The first day that the county elections office could legally accept applications for absentee ballots for the May 24 elections was March 7, but the staff is prohibited from mailing out any ballots to voters who have requested them until April 25.

“April the 25th, everything that we have on hand prior to that we’ll start mailing them out, and then we’ll proceed, as we get requests in, on a daily basis,” Jones said.

But the elections staff must stop accepting requests for absentee ballots at the end of the day on May 13, which is 11 days before the final, traditional Election Day. Before the 2021 law, absentee ballots could be requested as late as the Friday before a Tuesday election.

Absentee ballot request forms are also available on the My Voter Page, www.mvp.sos.ga.gov. But at least for last year’s city elections, the request could not longer be filed as an interactive online form.

The law now requires the voter to provide the number from his or her valid Georgia driver’s license or state-issued ID, or to show another form of acceptable identification. The application includes a rectangular space to place another form of ID and photograph or copy the completed application after it is printed.  The application also has to be signed by the voter.

The state Elections Division may make it possible yet to upload the completed form, but right now the surest route is to complete the form and bring it, mail it or fax it to the county elections office, Jones said.  Voters can also call to have an absentee ballot application mailed to them or complete one at the office.

The address is Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration; 113 N. Main St., Ste. 201

Statesboro, GA 30458. The main phone number is (912) 764-6502, and the fax is (912) 764-8167.

Early voting

While Senate Bill 202 tightened requirements and shortened the time for absentee paper ballots, it increased the days available for in-person early voting to include two Saturdays statewide in addition to three weeks of Monday-Friday voting opportunity.

Bulloch County has not added a voting Sunday, which is optional statewide.

But early voting will be available at the elections office in the annex, Monday through Friday, May 2-6, 9-13 and 16-20, plus Saturday, May 7 and Saturday, May 14. Additionally, Jones and the elections board plan to open a second early voting location, in the Parks and Recreation Department’s Honey Bowen Building at 1 Max Lockwood Drive, for the final five days, May 16-20.