Bill changing date of Georgia’s primaries on its way to governor

“It’s a bill we’d act quickly on, barring any big (and unlikely) changes,” said Brian Robinson, a spokesman for Deal.

With that out of the way, it becomes a job for Secretary of State Brian Kemp and county election officials across the state to prepare. Had House Bill 310 not passed, however, it would have been worse, Kemp spokesman Jared Thomas said.

“It really shouldn’t be a big change in workload for us or the counties,” Thomas said. “The pain would have come from two calendars. That would have generated a huge workload.”

If HB 310 does not become law, the primary elections for federal offices — U.S. House and Senate — will still be May 20, thanks to a federal court order, but the state primaries would remain in July. A federal judge last year ordered the state to move its federal primary to May 20 to allow for at least 45 days of absentee voting by military and overseas voters.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state over its practice of holding federal runoffs three weeks after an election. Federal officials based their complaint on the country’s Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986, which established a 45-day window for overseas voters to return their ballots.

U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones subsequently ordered the state to extend its 21-day runoff window.

Under HB 310, a general election runoff for state or county offices would be Dec. 2, four weeks after the election on Nov. 4. A runoff in a federal race would be held Jan. 6, nine weeks after the general election.

The bill’s sponsor, House Ethics Committee Chairman Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs, said it’s “a thoughtful response to the U.S. District Court’s ruling. Georgia does not need multiple election dates.”