National Voter Education Week Aims To Prepare Smyrna Voters

SMYRNA, GA — The upcoming National Voter Education Week offers residents of Smyrna and Cobb County another opportunity to get prepared for the next election.

The weeklong event, to be held Oct. 4-8 in 2021, helps voters “bridge the gap” between registering to vote and actually casting a ballot, according to the website for the National Voter Education Week initiative.

“During this week of interactive education, voters have the opportunity to find their polling location, understand their ballot, make a plan to vote in person or remotely, and more,” the initiative’s description reads.

Now in its second year, National Voter Education Week comes as many states have revised voting laws in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and on the heels of a 2020 presidential election that saw a record number of early voters.

Nearly 1 in 5 states, including Georgia, passed laws following the election that tighten absentee voting windows and impose new rules on casting ballots and running elections.

Following the 2020 election, nine states passed legislation that sponsors say improves election security. Critics, however, say the legislation makes it harder for people to vote.

Related: National Voter Registration Day: How To Be Vote-Ready In Georgia

In Kansas, one law effectively shuts down voter registration drives by making it a felony to impersonate an election official, according to a National Public Radio report, a standard that could depend entirely on mistaken impressions. In Montana, state lawmakers eliminated Election Day voter registration.

In Georgia, Senate Bill 202 does the following, among other changes:

• Replaces signature matching on absentee ballots, and instead requires a Georgia driver's license number or state ID number. Voters who do not have either of these forms of ID must submit a photocopy of another accepted form of ID, which can be found online here.
• Shortens the length of time to both request and complete an absentee ballot application.
• Prohibits government entities from distributing unsolicited absentee ballot applications.
• Moves ballot drop box locations to be inside government buildings, therefore limiting hours the public can access them.
• Adds mandatory Saturday voting and makes Sunday voting optional, rather than required.
• Shortens the required polling hours from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. to 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Counties can still opt to keep polling locations open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. if they wish.
• Places boundaries on where volunteers can pass out food and/or drinks to voters in line. Volunteers can pass out refreshments only outside 150 feet of a polling place or 25 feet from the end of the voter line — the same boundary rules that already existed for people who campaign to voters in line.

Several of the above provisions are being challenged in the U.S. Department of Justice's federal lawsuit against Georgia, so they are subject to change based on the results of the lawsuit.

National Voter Education Week has outlined a simple step to take each day that aims to develop residents from unregistered voters to citizens well-informed about what’s on their ballot.

• On Monday, Oct. 4, the initiative stresses the #VoteReady hashtag, urging people to register to vote or check their registration status.
• Tuesday brings the #MailReady step, when people can request a mail-in ballot.
• On Wednesday, it is #VotePlanReady, in which people can make their plans to vote.
• #BallotReady comes Thursday, when the initiative urges registered voters to learn about what’s on their ballot.
• And Friday brings it back to #VoteReady, with the initiative calling on people to “level up your voting engagement.”

Registering to vote in Georgia is simple. You can register online, check to see if you're already registered and make changes to your registration record at the My Voter Page website; register in-person or by mail through the Cobb County elections office; or register by mail by downloading and completing the postage-paid voter registration application and mail it to the Georgia Secretary of State's office.

You can also register to vote directly on the National Voter Education Week website.

Just under one-third of people who voted in the 2020 presidential election did so in person after states expanded mail-in balloting and early voting due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

In fact, 2020 was the first time in the history of the survey that a majority of voters did not cast their ballots in person on Election Day.

While new laws may have changed the landscape of mail-in voting, it’s important to know when you need to register by, as well as other key election deadlines in Georgia.

• Oct. 4: Voter registration deadline
• Oct. 12: Earliest day for a registrar to mail an absentee ballot for the November election
• Oct. 12: Early in-person voting begins
• Oct. 29: Last day for a registrar to issue absentee ballots for the November election
• Nov. 2: Election Day

Related:

• Election Law Restricts Absentee Voting, Weakens Sec. of State
• GA Voting Law Subject Of U.S. Justice Department Lawsuit