| 🗳️ It’s Election Day with Atlanta Civic Circle |
| Today is Election Day for Georgia’s May 21 general primary, and Atlanta Civic Circle will have reporters in all five metro Atlanta counties bringing you updates, important pointers, and voter voices. |
| Follow our Election Day live blog |
| Reminder: Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Check our Georgia Decides voter guide, in partnership with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to find out who you’ll be voting for. 🪪 Be sure to vote where you are registered If you did not vote early or by absentee ballot, you must vote at your registered polling place. To double-check your polling location for Election Day, use the My Voter Page on the Georgia Secretary of State’s website. If you requested an absentee ballot, it is too late to simply mail it. All absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. today, when polls close. If you requested an absentee ballot, it is too late to mail it back. And, drop boxes are now closed. Instead, return it to your county’s election office. All absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. today, when polls close. If you mailed your absentee ballot, you can check the status of your ballot at the Georgia Secretary of State’s My Voter Page. You can also still vote at your designated polling location. 🤔 It’s a primary, but… Even though this is a general primary election, several races will be decided outright today. That includes both non-partisan races that don’t head to a runoff and some partisan primaries in counties that heavily favor one party. Read our explainer on when a primary is not a primary, and check our voter guide to see who is on your ballot. In elections where no candidate obtains more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will compete in a runoff election in four weeks. 🫏 Ballot questions 🐘 Not questions about your ballot, but the party advisory questions on your ballot. If you choose a Democratic or Republican ballot you’ll see policy questions from state and local party officials. These are a bit like a poll; they’re non-binding and party leaders ask them to understand what their voters do or don’t care about. Atlanta Civic Circle spoke to both a Democratic and a Republican insider for some insight on what these are all about. |
| Support ACC’s election coverage |
| Your financial support keeps Atlanta Civic Circle’s 2024 democracy coverage going. It give us the critical resources to hire Election Day staff, publish articles and explainers, and produce our voter guide. Please consider contributing today – no amount is too small. |
| 🏛️ A race to watch: Fulton County Clerk of Court |
| The election for Fulton County clerk is a race to watch. ACC and the AJC asked the candidates their top priority if elected. Here’s what they said: Che Alexander: Upon election, my goal is to evolve the clerk’s office with advanced technology for peak efficiency and effectiveness. We’ll overhaul customer service to guarantee exceptional experiences for all court users. Additionally, I’ll boost our outreach, enhancing the accessibility of our services and information. Keisha Sean Waites: Streamline and improve service delivery for Fulton County residents, taxpayers and stakeholders. Utilize technology to enhance the efficiency and accessibility of the clerk’s office. Partner with my former colleagues and members of the Georgia Legislature to strengthen policies and penalties in an effort to reduce mortgage and deed fraud by educating the public on the benefits of House Bill 1292. Ralph Joseph Hughes: We need accountability, honesty and integrity in this office, or else we disgrace the powers of our attorneys, our judges, and the sheriff, and the whole system breaks down. Real estate fraud is rampant, and we need to tighten the reigns to have timely deed filings. We will stop making excuses for the gap, and start finding solutions. Rodney J. Fowler: This candidate has not yet responded to the questionnaire. Want to see what’s on your ballot? Use our Georgia Decides voter guide before heading to the polls. |
| 🎤 Biden at Morehouse |
| Maybe you noticed that traffic was a little worse this weekend? President Joe Biden was in town. After attending a fundraiser for his Georgia supporters hosted by Arthur M. Blank at his family office on Saturday evening, Biden delivered Morehouse College’s commencement speech on Sunday morning. Notably, he called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Israel-Gaza war and announced $16 billion in federal funding for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Atlanta Civic Circle was on the ground with coverage of the protest of Biden’s speech. |
| 💬 Note to our readers: Atlanta Civic Circle wants to know what local voters care about in the upcoming elections. Want to share your thoughts? Send us a note. |
| VOTER PROFILE: HARRIS DULING |
 Age: 26 Occupation: Geologist Neighborhood: Cumberland Political affiliation: Democrat |
| What motivated you to vote early instead of on Election Day? The time and convenience mostly. I did not want to wait in line on Election Day, and I could come and vote early — really, whenever. How did you feel about the candidates and issues on the ballot? It was mainly incumbents. On top of that, a lot of the Democratic ballot questions are long-winded and are like “If you vote no on this, why?” They phrase it in a way that tries to get you to vote “yes” on all of them. Do you plan to vote in the November election? Yes, early voting too. What do you wish elected officials understood about your life? The cost of living — and just that everything we need to live is going up. A lot of them don’t really get how much rent has gone up. I feel a lot of the people on that ballot don’t pay rent at all — or people pay rent to them. Are there other issues you care about? Universal background checks on guns. There was a gun show in Marietta earlier this month. I could walk in with $200 and just grab one and walk out. Extending MARTA and public transportation is also very important to me. I’d love to be able to get to the city from here [without a car]. |
| Today’s Democracy Digest was written by Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon with contributions from Claire Becknell. It was edited by Meredith Hobbs. Correction: The emailed version of this Newsletter incorrectly stated that absentee ballots can be placed in drop-boxes on Election Day. In fact, absentee ballots can still be delivered to the county registrar’s office on Election Day. It also stated that President Biden’s fundraiser was at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, it was in fact at the Blank family office. |
