SB514: SB514 Primaries and Elections; use of ballot drop boxes; eliminate authorization

Georgia law currently allows counties to set up ballot drop boxes as an additional place for voters to return absentee ballots, and it sets several possible dates during the year for special elections, including some tied to sales and use tax questions. This bill would repeal the part of state election law (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-382) that authorizes those drop boxes, removing them as an option for absentee ballot return anywhere in the state. The bill also rewrites part of the law governing special election dates (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-540). It removes an expired option that let sales tax questions appear on a March special election ballot before July 1, 2024, and adds a new rule saying that questions on sales and use taxes authorized under several tax code articles may only be presented to voters on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years. The bill repeals conflicting laws and contains no separate effective date section shown in the text provided.

• Repeals subsection (c) of O.C.G.A. § 21-2-382, eliminating the state law authorization for county ballot drop boxes used for absentee ballot return.
• Removes an outdated special election date option that let local sales tax questions appear on the March ballot only before July 1, 2024.
• Adds a new rule limiting most local sales and use tax referendum questions to the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years only.
• Keeps existing exceptions for recall elections and special elections to fill federal or state office vacancies unchanged.

Georgia voters who currently rely on ballot drop boxes to return absentee ballots, county election officials and boards of registrars who manage those boxes, and local governments that ask voters to approve sales and use taxes through special elections.

Voters would lose ballot drop boxes as an absentee ballot return option, which some counties currently use to make voting more convenient. Local governments seeking voter approval for sales taxes would have fewer scheduling options, concentrating most such questions on one November election date in even years.

• Section 1 repeals subsection (c) of Code Section 21-2-382, which had allowed additional buildings to serve as registrar's offices for advance voting and ballot drop boxes.
• Section 2 revises Code Section 21-2-540(c)(2)(B) by removing the option to hold sales tax special elections in March before July 1, 2024.
• Section 2 adds new paragraph (3) to Code Section 21-2-540(c), requiring that questions on sales and use taxes under Articles 2, 2A, 3, 4, 5, 5A, and 5B of Chapter 8 of Title 48 be held only on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years.
• Section 3 repeals all laws and parts of laws that conflict with the bill.

1. 2026-02-18Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2026-02-17Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Timothy Bearden (R, SD-030)Primary sponsor
• Ricky Williams (R, SD-025)
• Randy Robertson (R, SD-029)
• Greg Dolezal (R, SD-027)
• Matt Brass (R, SD-006)
• Jason T. Dickerson (R, SD-021)

• ballot drop boxes
• absentee voting
• election dates
• sales tax referendums
• Georgia election law