ATLANTA — Viewers are reaching out to 11Alive for help after running into problems trying to access absentee ballot applications for Georgia's May primaries. They said they would often run into dead links on the Secretary of State's website. Some voters have also found dead links through the Governor's Office while trying to access absentee ballot applications.
The Secretary of State's Office is urging patience, saying it is aware of the issue with a portion of the website. Officials said the issue should be resolved once Georgia launches the new voter registration system by the end of the month.
The Secretary of State's Office added that the absentee ballot request portal is not required by law. It's simply a more convenient way to process absentee ballot applications. Officials said the portal was implemented in August 2020, when so many Georgia voters were seeking to vote absentee in the presidential and congressional elections to avoid COVID exposure at polling locations. The portal made it quicker and easier for voters to request and submit absentee ballot applications.
However, this past January, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the office would implement a new voter registration system, which will include an updated portal.
11Alive began receiving complaints about the old portal being down in February. The portal remains inactive even after March 7, the first-day voters could start requesting absentee ballots for this spring's primary.
Due to new Georgia election rules, the window to request an absentee ballot is 78 days before an election, up until 11 days before Election Day. This year, May 13 is the last possible day to request an absentee ballot. In Georgia, any eligible voter can choose to vote absentee without cause.
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Still, there are several frustrated voters like Laura Frank, who is pressing through to try and request her absentee ballot.
"You push the button, and it doesn’t go anywhere at all," the DeKalb County voter said. “It’s gonna put people behind in getting their ballots to vote that late.”
Hannah Gebresilassie, executive director of Protect the Vote Georgia, said voters could get discouraged and decide against voting at all. She argued the state should make it easier for voters to access important information.
“Voters should be at the core of all of these processes," Gebresilassie said. "Voters should be the focus of the process in which we work to create the system. That's why you do have so many organizations on the ground, fighting to make sure we can empower our fellow neighbors and community members to make sure they know that their voices do matter."
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Gwinnett County Elections Supervisor Zach Manifold is vouching for the state's new voter registration system, which he said should be able to handle thousands of absentee ballots. Manifold, who just moved from Ohio last summer to oversee elections in one of Georgia's most populous and diverse counties, said voters are still able to access absentee ballot applications through the My Voter Page and mail them in, email the signed applications to their local elections office or hand-deliver the request.
"The new system is better at scanning papers into the system, batch scanning, stuff that automates the process and makes it smoother and more efficient," Manifold said.
Manifold said people have called into his elections office, asking how the new election rules work when requesting an absentee ballot. He said it's better to act as quickly as possible when sending in an application.
“Get those applications in sooner. Don’t wait around," Manifold said. "If you want to go ahead and get it in, or sign up for absentee mail ballot, go ahead and get it in now.”
Manifold said absentee ballots wouldn't start going out until late April. Georgia's primaries are May 24. Early in-person voting runs from May 2 through May 20.