HB 324: 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 move to the front of the line during advance voting and during set hours on election day. This bill expands that same front-of-line privilege to voters who are blind, deaf, an amputee, pregnant, or accompanied by a child age two or younger or a child with special needs of any age. The bill rewrites two sections of Georgia election law (O.C.G.A. §§ 21-2-385.1 and 21-2-409.1). It removes the requirement that a disabled voter show they 'require assistance' to qualify, so simply being disabled is enough, matching how the age-based rule already works. Qualifying voters can ask a poll officer or election office worker to go straight to the next open voting machine or the front of the absentee ballot line. Notices about the rule must still be posted at registrar's offices and polling places.

• Adds blind, deaf, amputee, pregnant voters, and voters accompanied by young children or children with special needs to the list of people who can skip ahead in voting lines.
• Removes the current requirement that a disabled voter must show they need assistance in order to qualify for front-of-line voting.
• Keeps the existing rule for advance voting, letting qualifying voters go straight to an open voting machine or to the head of the line to cast an absentee ballot in person.
• Keeps the existing election-day window (9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) during which qualifying voters can move to the front of the line at any voting compartment or booth.
• Requires notice of these rights to remain posted at registrar's offices, absentee ballot clerk's offices, and polling places.

Voters who are 75 or older, blind, deaf, amputees, pregnant, or accompanied by a child age two or younger or a child with special needs of any age; election officials and poll workers who must recognize and accommodate these requests; and county registrar and absentee ballot offices that must post the required notices.

For the newly covered voters, this could mean shorter waits and less physical strain when voting in person, whether during early voting or on election day. Poll workers and registrars would need to identify a wider group of voters eligible for this accommodation and keep notices updated accordingly.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 21-2-385.1 to add blind, deaf, amputee, pregnant voters, and those with young or special-needs children to the advance-voting front-of-line privilege.
• Section 1 also drops the current requirement that disabled voters show they need assistance with an absentee ballot to qualify.
• Section 2 makes the same additions and change to O.C.G.A. § 21-2-409.1, which governs the election-day front-of-line rule between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
• 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 "Rey" Martinez (R, HD-111)Primary sponsor
• Scott Hilton (R, HD-48)
• Carmen Rice (R, HD-139)
• Sandy Donatucci (R, HD-105)
• Johnny Chastain (R, HD-7)
• David Clark (R, HD-100)

• election rules
• voting accessibility
• disability rights
• advance voting
• election day procedures