() –Georgia and North Carolina, two of the most contested states, begin early in-person voting this week.
Between a flurry of legislative changes and the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the experience could be different for many voters heading to the polls in the coming weeks.
In Georgia, voters can go to the polls starting this Tuesday and in North Carolina, early in-person voting begins this Thursday. Here are some of the things to know about how voting and elections will work in two key states.
New state laws after 2020, which tightened rules for absentee voting and cracked down on the availability of drop boxes, may make the option less attractive than early in-person voting, election experts said.
While many drop boxes were available 24/7 in 2020, there will be fewer of them this year, and they will be at election offices or early voting locations with hours that tend to mimic normal office hours.
“Drop boxes have actually become so inconvenient to use that fewer voters are able to use them,” said Kristin Nabers, Georgia state director for All Voting is Local. “I don’t want to discourage people from using the drop boxes in any way, but I can understand why people think it’s easier to show up in person.”
Meanwhile, opportunities to vote early in person have expanded: Georgia law mandates two Saturdays of early voting and allows two up to Sundays of early voting if a county desires.
A 2021 law that makes it a crime to offer food or drink to voters waiting to cast their ballots – which was widely publicized by the media and immortalized by comedian Larry David in episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” – survived in its mostly to legal challenges. It is therefore still prohibited to offer a bottle of water or a snack to voters who are within 45 meters of a building where voting is taking place.
The law also sought to prohibit the offering of food or drink within 7 meters of a voter in line, even if they were more than 45 meters from the building where votes were being cast. A judge suspended this provision, allowing voting rights groups to offer so-called “line relief” to voters who find themselves in especially long lines.
The Peach State introduced several changes to try to get voters results more quickly. ET on election night, counties must report the results of their early in-person and absentee voting. As counties tabulate Election Day votes, they will provide updates in regular interviews. The goal, according to the Georgia Secretary of State, is to provide quick, fair and transparent results.
At the same time, several new rules approved by a Donald Trump-backed Republican majority on the Georgia State Board of Elections are creating uncertainty around the post-election process. The board approved a rule requiring a manual recount of the number of ballots at each polling place, which could delay the communication of results.
The board also approved rules allowing county officials to examine large amounts of election material and requiring those officials to conduct a “reasonable investigation” before certifying the results.
There are ongoing lawsuits related to all of the new rules, which Democrats and voting rights activists fear could be exploited by county officials who want to try to challenge the election results or delay the certification process.
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, North Carolina officials have worked to ensure residents can vote.
“I think there will be a decline, but it’s hard to predict how much,” Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said of the storm’s impact on voter turnout. “But I am encouraged so far by the efforts the State Board of Elections has made to educate people about what to do and how to vote.”
The North Carolina State Board of Elections website has updated information on relocating polling places, how voters who lost their ID in the storm can vote, and how displaced voters can request new mail-in ballots. .
As for early voting centers, the 25 western counties most affected by Helene had planned 80 early voting centers. Seventy-five of them will be operational when early voting begins. “It is absolutely exceptional that our county boards of elections have accomplished this in Western North Carolina, given the devastation and destruction caused by Helene,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state Board of Elections, said at a meeting. briefing held last week.
State officials are also still working to get everything needed, from generators to portable toilets, to open as many polling stations as possible on Nov. 5, Brinson Bell said.
Voters considering casting their ballot by mail should note that, unlike 2020, their ballots must be received by 7:30 p.m. ET on Election Day.
During the last presidential race, there was a three-day grace period for ballots to arrive, which has since been eliminated.
This is the first presidential election in which residents of the Tar Heel State will be required to present identification when they go to vote. Accepted identification documents are driver’s licenses, passports, and student photo cards approved by the state board of elections.
There are exceptions if a voter cannot provide identification and one of those exceptions is a natural disaster. In that case, voters fill out an identification exception form that accompanies their ballot. The state board of elections notes that county boards of elections are required to count provisional ballots that include identification exemption forms.
Both Georgia and North Carolina prohibit photographing ballots.
“Everyone takes selfies these days, even boomers like me,” said Phillips of North Carolina Common Cause. “But there is definitely a law that says no selfies.”
Phillips noted that voters can still bring their phones to a polling place if they want to look up information about who they are voting for. This is not the case in all states.
‘s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
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