Elections; allow municipalities to opt in to providing advance voting on Saturdays for municipal elections
HB397 is a broad elections administration bill that revises multiple parts of Georgia’s election code. It changes the structure and duties of the State Election Board, including moving it to administrative attachment with the State Accounting Office, giving it custody of certain investigative reports and communications, and tightening when board rules can take effect near an election. The bill also revises filing rules for presidential and special-election candidates, changes special-election timing, and adds reporting requirements for election-night results and ongoing absentee/advance-voting statistics.
A major portion of the bill focuses on voter list maintenance and data-sharing. It prohibits state and local election officials from joining certain multistate voter list maintenance organizations, while separately authorizing the Secretary of State to enter into joint compacts with other states for voter list maintenance under specified conditions. It also addresses access to voter registration data, limits commercial use, and creates a reporting requirement for the State Election Board on improving voter registration accuracy and efficiency. The bill further revises rules for removing electors from the rolls when they move, die, or become ineligible.
The bill also makes substantial changes to absentee voting and drop boxes. It limits when hand-delivered absentee ballots may be accepted, requires at least one drop box in each county but restricts the number and placement of additional drop boxes, and imposes surveillance, collection, transfer, and reconciliation requirements. It also revises advance-voting schedules, including allowing municipalities to opt out of Saturday voting for municipal-only elections, and expands daily reporting of absentee, advance, and provisional ballot activity to the Secretary of State and the public.
Overall sentiment appears mixed but generally supportive among legislators who voted on it, with the House passing it overwhelmingly and the Senate approving the substitute by a narrower margin. The vote pattern suggests broad agreement on the need to revise election procedures, but also meaningful concern about some of the bill’s more restrictive or structural changes. The absence of committee transcript discussion limits insight into detailed debate, but the close Senate vote indicates the bill was more contentious there than in the House.
The main points of contention likely involve ballot access and election administration controls: drop box limits, the ban on late hand-delivered absentee ballots, restrictions on multistate voter list maintenance groups, and the transfer of authority and records involving the State Election Board and Secretary of State. Supporters would likely view the bill as improving election integrity, transparency, and uniformity, while critics may see parts of it as reducing convenience for voters and constraining participation in interstate election-data programs.
HB397 would amend Georgia’s election statutes across Title 21, affecting the State Election Board, the Secretary of State, county registrars, municipal election officials, candidates, and voters. It changes administrative oversight of the State Election Board, imposes new rulemaking timing limits, adds reporting obligations, and revises candidate qualification and special-election timing rules. It also creates new definitions and reporting requirements related to voter list maintenance and election-night results.
The bill significantly alters absentee voting procedures, drop box rules, and advance-voting operations, including limits on hand-delivered absentee ballots, mandatory drop box standards, surveillance and chain-of-custody procedures, and public reporting of ballot activity. It also changes the legal framework for voter list maintenance by restricting participation in certain multistate organizations while authorizing interstate compacts for information sharing under controlled conditions. These changes would directly affect election officials’ procedures and voters’ access to absentee and advance voting options.
The bill appears to have received strong support in the House and enough support in the Senate to pass the substitute, but the Senate margin was notably narrower. That suggests the bill was broadly acceptable to many lawmakers, while still drawing substantial opposition to some of its election-administration changes. With no committee transcript available, the recorded votes are the clearest indicator of sentiment: favorable overall, but more divided in the Senate than in the House.
The most likely areas of contention are the restrictions on absentee ballot handling and drop boxes, the prohibition on participation in certain multistate voter list maintenance organizations, and the expanded authority for election officials to share or withhold voter data under new compacts. Critics may object to reduced flexibility for voters and local officials, especially the limits on Saturday advance voting for municipal elections and the ban on accepting hand-delivered absentee ballots after advance voting ends. Supporters likely argue these provisions improve security, transparency, and consistency in election administration. The narrower Senate vote suggests these issues were the main fault lines.