Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is working with the Georgia Assembly to tackle long lines at the voting booth. With the help of legislative partners, Raffensperger crafted legislation that will help dramatically reduce the time voters will need to wait before voting in future elections.

“The right to vote is a most sacred democratic duty, and one that should not be inhibited by unnecessarily long lines,” said Raffensperger. “I am excited that this legislation will take significant action to preempt long wait times on election day and look forward to working every day to ensure easy access to the ballot box for all Georgians.”

Secretary Raffensperger has worked with legislative partners to propose new legislation that will, first and foremost, take a hatchet to long lines before the ballot box. The new bill will require counties to track wait times and take action if voters have to wait more than an hour to cast their ballot. The counties will measure the wait times at least three times on election day and report those times back to the Secretary of State. If the wait time is longer than one hour, county election officials will be advised to split the precinct, provide more voting equipment, or hire additional poll workers for the next election. In conjunction with added flexibility in how local election officials can allocate equipment, the new policies will provide Georgian voters with the comfort that something is being done about frustrating long lines on election day.

Also included in the legislation are changes to the Georgia Code that will sync up voter registration deadlines for elections that happen on the same day. The current system created confusion for voters and difficulties in administering elections. Other provisions in the legislation provide additional methods for Georgia’s absentee voters to verify their identity. A copy of their photo ID submitted in conjunction with their absentee ballot will allow these voters an easy option.

Together with our ongoing efforts to modernize Georgia’s voting system, we are proposing a number of fixes to the language in the Georgia Code that will update Georgia law to match the secure, verifiable paper ballot system we now use.