On June 9, voters in Georgia cast their ballots in the presidential local primary contests, as well as two seats for the state supreme court. In the lead-up to the contest, we analyzed discrepancies in who was requesting mail absentee ballots. Past research had indicated that racial minorities were less likely to request mail ballots than other voters; we showed that, at least in Georgia, those trends held true even during a pandemic when all voters were sent absentee ballot request forms.
Today, we examine data from the Georgia primary that sheds light on why – and whose – mail ballots are rejected, and also who took advantage of early in-person options. We find that:
- Far fewer white voters had their mail ballots rejected than non-white voters.
- For all racial groups, most rejected ballots were rejected because they were received after the deadline.
- Black voters were slightly more likely to vote early and in-person than white voters.
- Nearly 9 percent of voters who requested mail ballots voted in-person. This was especially common among Black voters.