Last Day to Register to Vote in Run-Offs

Today is the last day to register to vote if you want to be able to vote in the August 11 run-off election.

Voters in Stephens County will be voting in the State House District 50 run-off between Republicans Bo Hatchett and Stacy Hall, House District 9 run-off between Republicans Andrew Clyde and Matt Gurtler, and Democrats Devin Pandy and Brooke Siskin.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced this week that to fully comply with the National Voter Registration Act, the voter registration deadline for all August 11, 2020 primary runoff elections is now July 13, 2020.

This change was necessary to match the July 13 voter registration deadline that federal law sets for the federal runoffs that are part of the upcoming primary runoff election.

Walter Jones, Communications Manager for Voter Education said in a press release that the change was necessary because when federal and state law conflict, the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution says that the federal law controls.

He said in 2017, a federal judge ruled that Georgia could no longer require that voters had to be registered for the primary in order to vote in the runoff for federal elections, and that decision made it impossible to fully comply with both the National Voter Registration Act and state law when federal and state elections are held on the same day.

On July 6, 2020, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger issued a memo to Georgia’s county elections officials and county registrars announcing the updated registration deadline of July 13 for the August 11 primary runoff election.

Georgia voters who have updated their voter registration since the June 9 primary will be eligible to vote in their updated location in the August 11 primary runoff.

Voters can check their registration status and confirm the location of their polling place at mvp.sos.ga.gov.