Absentee ballots won’t start being delivered to Georgia voters until the week of April 20 because of a nationwide backlog, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Information on the secretary of state’s My Voter Page showing that absentee ballots have been issued for the June 9 primary is incorrect.
Georgia election officials mailed absentee ballot request forms to the state’s 6.9 million active voters last week in an effort to encourage people to vote from home rather than at precincts during the coronavirus outbreak. Many voters have already returned those absentee ballot requests.
Normally, absentee voting is handled by county election offices, but this year Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger contracted with companies to mail large numbers of absentee ballots and request forms. County election workers will still be responsible for counting ballots.
The delay in mailing absentee ballots occurred because of high demand for printing services from Arizona-based Runbeck Election Services, said Gabriel Sterling, implementation manager for Georgia’s voting system.