Early voting started Monday in two Georgia runoff election, and already the secretary of state race is getting attention from the White House.
President Trump tweeted Monday, Brad Raffensperger will be a “fantastic secretary of state for Georgia – will work closely with Brian Kemp…"
Raffensperger is in a runoff with former Democrat Congressman John Barrow.
But something else with the runoff caught the attention of some of our viewers – absentee ballot applications. This time showing up in mailboxes, in some cases uninvited, and it's leaving recipients puzzled.
11Alive received a few calls and messages wondering if an absentee ballot application from the Georgia Republican Party was legit or a scam.
So, 11Alive’s Natisha Lance went straight to the source: John Watson, the Chair of the Georgia Republican Party.
“It’s no scam – all legit. Please use it, please go vote,” he assured. “We're making it as wonderfully easy as humanly possible for folks to show up and participate in the critical runoff elections for secretary of state and public service commissioner.”
If you were one of those voters who received one of the ballots, but can't figure out how you ended up on the list – you won’t get the answer, unfortunately.
“I'm not going to give away my tactics or strategy in a political environment,” Watson said. “But we mailed it out to folks we obviously think will be supportive of our candidates.”
One thing to note, however, if you received the application from the Georgia GOP, it does not mean you have to vote for that party.
The two positions up for runoffs are the secretary of state post and public service commission. The latter is between Republican Chuck Eaton and Democrat Lindy Miller.
Usually just a fraction of voters turn out for runoffs compared to the first election. So, consider this all a big reminder to vote… once again. The early voting period runs until the end of the week.
Election day is Dec. 4.