HB324: HB324 Elections; preferential treatment during advance voting and during certain hours on election day to certain voters; provisions

Georgia law already lets voters age 75 or older, or disabled voters who need assistance, skip to the front of the line during advance voting and during set hours on election day. This bill expands that list of eligible voters. It rewrites two sections of state election law (O.C.G.A. §§ 21-2-385.1 and 21-2-409.1) to add voters who are blind, deaf, amputees, pregnant, accompanied by a child age two or younger, or accompanied by a child with special needs of any age. During advance voting, these voters could ask a registrar's office or absentee ballot clerk's office employee to be moved to the next open voting machine or to the head of the line for an absentee ballot. On election day, between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., they could ask a poll officer for the same immediate access. Offices and polling places must post notice of these rights.

• Adds blind, deaf, amputee, pregnant voters, and those accompanied by young children or children with special needs to the group eligible for expedited voting access.
• Lets these voters skip to the next available voting machine or the head of the absentee ballot line during advance voting, upon request to office staff.
• Extends the same line-skipping right to election day between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. by request to a poll officer.
• Requires notice of these voting rights to be posted prominently in registrar's offices, absentee ballot clerk's offices, and polling places.
• Repeals any existing state laws that conflict with these changes.

Voters who are blind, deaf, amputees, pregnant, or accompanied by children age two or younger or children with special needs, plus voters who are 75 or older or disabled who already qualify. County registrars, absentee ballot clerks, and election day poll officers who must accommodate these requests.

Georgians in these newly listed groups would gain the right to vote without waiting in line, potentially making it easier and faster to cast a ballot both during advance voting and during set hours on election day, while election offices take on new duties to identify and accommodate them.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 21-2-385.1 to add blind, deaf, amputee, pregnant voters and those with young children or children with special needs to the advance voting line-skipping privilege.
• Section 1 requires notice of this right to be prominently displayed in the registrar's office or absentee ballot clerk's office.
• Section 2 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 21-2-409.1 to extend the same privilege on election day between 9:30 A.M. and 4:30 P.M. upon request to a poll officer.
• Section 2 requires notice of this right to be prominently displayed in the voting place.
• Section 3 repeals any conflicting state laws.

1. 2025-04-04House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
2. 2025-02-27House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
3. 2025-02-11House Second Readers (House)
4. 2025-02-10House First Readers (House)
5. 2025-02-06House Hopper (House)

• Reynaldo Martinez (R, HD-111)Primary sponsor
• Scott Hilton (R, HD-048)
• Carmen Rice (R, HD-139)
• Sandy Donatucci (R, HD-105)
• Johnny Chastain (R, HD-007)
• David Clark (R, HD-100)

• election rules
• voting access
• disability rights
• advance voting