Voters in the Georgia primaries this month will be asked several questions on hot-button issues that have galvanized party politics in the Democratic and Republican parties, both in the state and across the country.
Those subjects include same-day voter registration, paid parental leave, expansion of Medicaid, eliminating student loan debt and legalizing marijuana on the Democratic ballot.
Republican voters will be asked about U.S. border security, education vouchers, transgender athletes in high school sports, free speech in political campaigns, eliminating absentee ballot drop boxes and Buckhead cityhood.
The questions were placed on the ballots by the respective state party organizations.
They’re the only entities allowed to place such questions on ballots, and they are non-binding.
The results are used by the parties to shape messaging and to collect information.
Here are generic Cobb sample ballots, including the ballot questions: Democratic | Republican
(If you are choosing a non-partisan ballot, which is limited to judicial races, you will not get any ballot questions, unless you live within the proposed boundaries spelled out in the East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings cityhood referendums.)
But this year, some of the party ballot questions touch on volatile cultural and spending topics.
The transgender athlete question comes after the Republican-dominated legislature couldn’t pass a bill requiring high school athletes to compete with the sex of their birth.
Another bill passed this year gave that authority to the Georgia High School Association, the governing body for high school athletics. On May 4, the GHSA’s executive committee, by a 62-0 vote, changed its bylaws to bar transgender athletes from competing along gender identity lines.
Similar bills have been passed or introduced in states with GOP control, after female-identified males have been allowed to compete recently in the Olympics and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Republican voters also will be asked if education funding should “follow a student that best fits their need: whether it is public, private, magnet, charter, virtual or homeschool?”
Democratic elected officials across the country have been advocating for forgiving student loan debt, and that question is on the Georgia primary ballot, with the language contending that it’s to “remove obstacles to economic development.”
Democratic voters also will be asked if marijuana should be legalized and regulated, similar to alcohol, for consumers aged 21 and over, with tax revenues to fund education, health care and infrastructure.
After contentious claims in the last two elections in Georgia about voter access, both the Democratic and Republican ballots again will have related questions.
In the 2020 elections, outdoor drop boxes were installed at various locations in Cobb and Georgia to collect absentee ballots.
Republicans claimed that encouraged “illegal ballot trafficking,” which is language included on the primary ballot in a question asking if they should be eliminated altogether.
The legislature passed a bill this year requiring drop boxes to be located inside an elections office or early voting location during opening hours only.
Democrats generally have had better absentee turnout, but Republicans tend to have stronger Election Day response.
The Democratic ballot asks if Georgia voters should be able to gather signatures to “directly place questions on the ballot” and if early voting should be expanded and same-day registration be established.
Democrats also will be asked if they are in favor of having “secure” drop boxes “accessible at all times, through Election Day.”
To get a sample ballot customized for you, click here.
Early voting continues Saturday and Monday-Friday next week.
Related:
- More than 12K ballots cast during the first week of early voting
- Former legislator wins special election runoff for East Cobb seat
- Cobb early voting map shows wait times at polling locations
- Cobb advance voting guide for primaries, referendums
- East Cobb News Politics & Elections page
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