Georgia voters begin early voting ahead of May 19 primaries

Voters across Georgia will be casting their ballots for the first time today for the May 19 primary elections and general elections.

Early voting begins April 27 and runs through May 15, including two Saturdays. Counties can also decide to hold voting on Sunday. Voters can locate their precinct through their My Voter Page or through the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.

Primary elections that will be on the ballot include the U.S. Senate, Georgia Governor, and Lieutenant Governor as well as several statewide positions.

For general elections, three Georgia Supreme Court seats will be decided with only two of those elections having contenders.

Michael Barnes, Deputy Director of Voting Systems IT, told WJBF that counties have been preparing to start early voting for a long time.

“I have 100% confidence in all 159 counties on being prepared. This is something they’ve done before. We’ve been doing primaries and elections in the state with this system since 2020. They are experts at getting it ready, and I feel like they are going to be confident and ready to go once advanced voting begins on Monday,” he said.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that every legal vote will count and warned that voter fraud could lead to serious penalties.

“We’re recognized right now as having probably the cleanest voter list in the country. Number one is we are the first state in the country that actually went back and checked citizenship. We did that in 2021,” Raffensperger said.

The July 1 deadline to get rid of QR codes on Georgia ballots will not impact the May 19 primaries nor the runoff elections that will be held in June.