The main thing college students—anyone, really—should know about voting in Clarke County in the upcoming presidential election is that it will be easy, for two reasons.
One is that the ballot is short. There’s the biggie—the choice for U.S. President—but beyond that, each voter will cast ballots in only four other contested races: for the U.S. House of Representatives in District 10, the Georgia Senate, the Georgia House of Representatives and district attorney. (Parts of Clarke County are in four different state House districts and two different state Senate districts, but citizens only vote in one state Senate and one state House race, depending on where they live.) In all those contested races except one, there’s a Republican incumbent facing a Democratic challenger. In the race for district attorney in the Western Judicial Circuit, which includes Clarke County and neighboring Oconee County, incumbent Democrat Deborah Gonzalez faces independent Kalki Yalamanchili. In addition, there are two proposed state constitutional amendments on the ballot, both designed to increase property tax exemptions for homeowners, and another question asking voters to authorize the creation and funding of a new kind of court to deal with tax issues.
Several other races are already decided: state House District 122 (represented by Democrat Spencer Frye), sheriff (John Q. Williams), coroner (Michael Eberhart), tax commissioner (JP LeMay) and clerk of Superior Court (Elisa Zarate). In each of those races, no Republican candidates ran, so they were decided in party primaries earlier this year. In addition, nonpartisan races for county commission and school board (Melissa Link in Commission District 2, Stephanie Johnson in District 6 and Carol Myers in District 8, as well as Mary Bagby in BOE District 2) were decided in May.
The second and more important reason it’s easy to vote in Clarke County is that officials planned it that way, going beyond state minimums to avoid the long lines that plague voters in some Georgia counties. Pending approval by the local Board of Elections, Clarke County Director of Elections and Voter Registration Charlotte Sosebee is proposing a full slate of early voting opportunities, including three days at the University of Georgia’s Tate Student Center. Early voting will begin at the Board of Elections office Oct. 15 and run through Nov. 1, the Friday before Election Day, but Sosebee is hoping to move early voting from the small downtown office to the Lyndon House Arts Center, where there is more space for voting machines and more parking. Early voting will also be available at other polling places closer to Election Day, including the Athens-Clarke County Public Library, and will also be available on some weekend days and at least one weekday beyond normal business hours.
Clarke’s push for early voting has meant voters have been able to cast ballots with little waiting in recent elections; in the 2020 presidential election, about 23,000 voters cast early ballots, another 18,000 used absentee ballots, and only about 9,000 waited to vote on Election Day itself. Sosebee is expecting voter turnout to be near 80% of Clarke registered voters this election, higher even than in the 2016 election (76%) and in 2020 (68%).
You can’t just show up to vote, however, unless you’re already a registered voter in Clarke County. Most are already registered; in Georgia, you’re automatically registered to vote when you get a driver’s license, unless you opt out.
College students can make a choice others don’t have—they can claim residence in Clarke County, where they are living most of the year, or in their home counties where their parents or guardians live.
A student registered in another Georgia county or another state can request a change to Clarke County resident status at the Board of Elections office downtown at 155 E. Washington St. In Georgia and in many other states, election officials in your previous place of residence will automatically be notified to cancel your registration there, but for some states individuals are responsible for making that notification.
Those who are not registered to vote at all can also do that at the Board of Elections office, as well as several other locations in the county. Check the elections office website at accgov.com/160/Elections-Office.
Young people who register to vote must turn 18 by Election Day, be a U.S. citizen, be a legal resident of the county, and not be serving a sentence for conviction of a felony or have been found mentally incompetent by a judge.
Online registration is available at the Athens-Clarke County website, as well as at the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/, where already registered voters can also change their registration location and check their registration status or print forms from there to register by mail. The deadline for voter registration is Oct. 7. At both sites, you can also find your polling place and other information.
A picture ID is required to vote. That can be a college ID card, and even an expired driver’s license, among others. The county elections office and the Georgia Department of Driver Services also offer free voter ID cards.
Students who choose to remain registered to vote in their home counties can request an absentee ballot, if they can’t or don’t want to make the trip back to their hometown to vote in person. They must request the absentee ballot from the county they’re registered in, or from the state voter website. That ballot has to be returned by Election Day to that home county—not to Clarke County—so the earlier, the better. In Georgia, anyone can choose to vote absentee, so voters registered in Clarke can also vote absentee, returning those ballots in Clarke.
Other than statewide elections like the presidential race, where a voter is registered will dictate what’s on the ballot. For example, a student from Gwinnett County can’t vote in Clarke County races in Gwinnett County, or for Gwinnett County races if they register in Clarke.
The earliest day to request an absentee ballot is Aug. 19. The first day registrars can mail out absentee ballots is Sept. 21. The last day to submit an absentee ballot application is Oct. 25.
Keep an eye out in Flagpole closer to Election Day for more information about local contested races and ballot questions.
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