More than 700 Georgia voters incorrectly received nonpartisan absentee ballots instead of Democratic or Republican ballots for the state’s upcoming primary runoff election, the secretary of state’s office said Friday.
Those voters are being mailed replacement ballots, along with a letter asking them to destroy their old ballots. Absentee ballots will be counted as long as they’re received by county election officials before 7 p.m. on election day Aug. 11.
The problem affected some voters who asked to be automatically mailed absentee ballots for the runoff, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Georgia law allows older, disabled, overseas and military voters to automatically receive absentee ballots after making one request each year. Other registered voters may also request absentee ballots, but they must submit an absentee application for each election.
Election officials are looking into what caused the problem, and they were able to identify the voters who were erroneously mailed nonpartisan ballots, according to the secretary of state’s office.
The issue primarily occurred in Fulton County, where 688 Democratic Party received nonpartisan ballots for the runoff. There are no Republican Party runoffs in Fulton.
Statewide, election officials mailed replacement ballots to 732 Democratic Party voters and 10 Republican Party voters affected by the issue.
Voters could return the original nonpartisan ballots they were mailed, and those ballots would be counted.
But nonpartisan ballots only list races for superior court judges and school board members, along with special elections. They exclude partisan contests for sheriffs and district attorneys.
Election officials will only count one ballot from each voter.
Voters can apply for absentee ballots, find voting locations and review sample ballots on the state’s My Voter Page at www.mvp.sos.ga.gov.
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