Cobb absentee ballot applications available; dropboxes open Sept. 16

Cobb tag offices reopening

The East Cobb Government Service Center will continue to serve as a drop-off spot for the return of absentee ballots for the November general election.

The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration has announced that it intends to have 16 drop boxes available by the Nov. 3 election day.

All of those additional locations haven’t been announced, but the East Cobb center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) was used as a drop box spot for the primaries and runoffs.

The vast majority of Cobb primary and runoff voters cast their votes via absentee ballot.

Cobb Elections is continuing to encourage absentee voting for the general election, given a shortage of poll workers and social-distancing guidelines. Primary voting also was hampered at some precincts, including at Sope Creek Elementary School, by new voting machines not working properly.

The locations listed at the link above will be available for drop box returns starting Sept. 16. Absentee ballot applications can be requested from Cobb Elections by clicking here, and you can also get a prompt to a customized application that will be mailed to you.

The mail-outs won’t start until Sept. 15, and the county and state have not sent out unsolicited ballot applications, as was done for the primaries.

The county sent out a message Tuesday saying there has been some confusion about this, since some private groups and organizations have been mailing out absentee ballot applications.

That’s fine for them to do, but they’re not from official elections agencies. One is the Center for Voter Information, which has been doing this in other states as well.

Keep in mind that these forms aren’t the actual absentee ballots, but an application to have one mailed once it’s filled out and returned.

Cobb Elections had sought federal CARES Act funding to mail absentee ballot applications for all 518,000 registered voters in the county, but earlier this month commissioners rejected taking up that request.

For more information on absentee voting in Cobb County, click here.

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