HB 502: Elections; preferential treatment during advance voting for voters accompanied by children two years of age or younger; provide

Under current Georgia law (O.C.G.A. §§ 21-2-385.1 and 21-2-409.1), voters who are 75 or older or who are disabled and require assistance can go to the front of the line during advance voting or during set hours on election day. This bill adds a new group to that privilege: voters accompanied by one or more children age two or younger. The bill also changes the standard for disabled voters. Instead of qualifying because they need assistance casting a ballot, they would qualify if standing in line would be impracticable for them. The head-of-line rule for election day would still apply only between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Notices about these rules must still be posted prominently at registrar offices, absentee ballot clerk offices, and polling places.

• Adds voters accompanied by a child two years old or younger to the group allowed to skip to the front of the line during advance voting.
• Adds the same accompanied-by-young-child group to the head-of-line privilege on election day between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
• Changes the qualifying condition for disabled voters from needing assistance casting a ballot to standing in line being impracticable for them.
• Keeps the requirement that notice of these line-skipping rules be posted prominently at registrar's offices, absentee ballot clerk's offices, and polling places.

Voters who bring a child age two or younger with them to vote, voters 75 or older, and disabled voters all gain or keep priority access to skip waiting lines. Poll workers, registrars, and absentee ballot clerks would need to apply the new eligibility rule and keep required notices posted.

Parents and caregivers of very young children would no longer have to wait in long lines to vote in person, which could make voting with an infant or toddler easier. The change to the disability standard could also broaden or narrow who qualifies for the existing line-skipping accommodation.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 21-2-385.1 to add voters accompanied by a child two years of age or younger to those who may vote immediately without waiting in line during advance voting.
• Section 1 also changes the disability qualifying standard from requiring assistance casting an absentee ballot to standing in line being impracticable.
• Section 2 revises O.C.G.A. § 21-2-409.1 to extend the same accompanied-by-young-child priority to election day voting between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
• Section 2 applies the same revised impracticability standard for disabled voters on election day.
• Section 3 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2026-02-19House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Cámara de Representantes)
2. 2025-04-04House Withdrawn, Recommitted (Cámara de Representantes)
3. 2025-03-06House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Cámara de Representantes)
4. 2025-02-20House Second Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
5. 2025-02-19House First Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
6. 2025-02-18House Hopper (Cámara de Representantes)

• Saira Draper (D, HD-090)Patrocinador principal
• John LaHood (R, HD-175)
• Tim Fleming (R, HD-114)
• Beth Camp (R, HD-135)
• Rob Leverett (R, HD-123)
• Joseph Gullett (R, HD-019)

• election rules
• voting access
• advance voting
• disability accommodations
• parents and voting