Candidates mobilize supporters as advance voting begins

You can download the free apps for both Apple and Android operating systems using either the iTunes app store for an iPhone or iPad or Google Play for Android.

Because the state conducts an “open” primary, voters may vote on a ballot of any party — you make your choice at the polls or when asking for an absentee ballot. You cannot, however, vote in more than one party’s primary.

Polling places set to open

Early voting for Georgia’s May 20 primary election begins Monday.

Voters can see sample ballots, verify their registration status and find early voting polling locations on the secretary of state's "My Voter Page" website (www.mvp.sos.ga.gov). Information about local elections can also be found on the state's new "GA Votes" mobile apps.

You can download the free apps for both Apple and Android operating systems using either the iTunes app store for an iPhone or iPad or Google Play for Android.

Because the state conducts an “open” primary, voters may vote on a ballot of any party — you make your choice at the polls or when asking for an absentee ballot. You cannot, however, vote in more than one party’s primary.

Early voting begins Monday for Georgia’s heated primary contests, as candidates for the wide-open Republican campaign for the U.S. Senate and a competitive governor’s race work to mobilize their supporters for one of the earliest elections in state history.

The May 20 primary has upended Georgia's electoral calendar, forcing candidates to gear up their get-out-the-vote drives earlier than ever. The shift was made to ensure there was enough time for overseas military personnel to vote, and the date was moved even earlier by GOP officials hoping a vote before most schools dismiss will boost turnout.

A barrage of costly advertisements are already bombarding the airwaves, and that will only intensify as the media coverage heightens ahead of the vote. It’s anyone’s guess whether the timing will draw out more voters or simply confuse the electorate, but a chunk of the voting public will make its choice sooner.

In 2010 more than 1.07 million votes were cast for the competitive Republican and Democratic governor’s primaries. That year 161,000 Georgians voted early in person and an additional 50,000 mailed in absentee ballots — constituting nearly one-fifth of the electorate. (That proportion soared to 43 percent in the 2012 general election.)

Campaigns of all stripes are courting those voters, eager to lock in support early.

Republican Karen Handel, the former secretary of state seeking a U.S. Senate seat, launched a statewide tour to coincide with the early-voting drive. It starts with an event Monday in Canton with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who recently endorsed Handel.

Handel campaign manager Corry Bliss said the 35,000 voters the campaign has identified as likely to vote for Handel will receive a mailing and a call telling them where they can vote early. An additional 350,000 received a robocall from radio commentator Erick Erickson that said she's the most likely candidate to keep the seat in GOP hands.

“Early voting is a vital part of our grass-roots campaign — especially when there is low voter turnout,” Bliss said. “Also, this is the time when people are starting to pay attention to the race, so it’s important to have the campaign’s message fresh in people’s minds.”

So far, though, the media blitz has failed to impress some voters. Steven Freeman, 44, said he’s tuned out the GOP ads because he figures he’ll vote for a Democrat. But he’s not certain whether he’ll even cast a ballot in the primary, let alone vote early.

“People pay attention more to a national election or a statewide race than they do to primaries,” said Freeman, who lives in Atlanta. “You can always tell that the stakes are higher in November.”

A wide-open primary

The stakes are pretty high in the wide-open, nationally watched Republican race to succeed U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, where three candidates are giving up seats in the U.S. House for a shot at the upper chamber. That has the campaigns trying to nudge their people to the polls as much as possible.

“We expect a substantial percentage of Georgians to vote early,” said Derrick Dickey, a spokesman for Republican businessman David Perdue. “The main focus of our volunteer efforts for the past few weeks has been contacting individuals with a higher likelihood of casting early ballots by mail or in person.”

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey’s campaign sponsored an early early-voting kickoff Friday in Marietta Square and is focusing its efforts on turning out Gingrey’s core supporters in areas he has represented in the House. The district, redrawn twice since he joined Congress in 2003, covers a swath of Republican-rich territory north and west of Atlanta.

“Our goal is to get everyone in the bank we can right now in Phil’s stronghold, which is the strongest hold in the state, anyway,” Gingrey campaign manager Patrick Sebastian said. He added that the Gingrey family and volunteers are writing notes to their Christmas card lists across the state urging them to get to the polls early.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Paul Broun pointed out that his was the first campaign to organize in all 159 counties, a sign of his base’s commitment. U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston’s campaign manager said a Monday morning appearance on WGAU-AM radio in Athens will be geared at reaching early voters.

A costly TV game

There was a time when campaigns could marshal the brunt of their ads and unleash them in the final few weeks ahead of the primary, but by April more than $5 million had already been spent on ads for the Senate contest alone. Even down-ticket candidates are feeling the pressure.

State Rep. Ed Lindsey of Atlanta, who is in a bruising Republican race for Gingrey’s seat in the House, became the first candidate in that contest to air television ads last week in the expensive Atlanta market. A similar dynamic is playing out in the GOP contest to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Augusta.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s campaign is tapping its political machine as he tries to fend off two Republican challengers. The victor will face the well-financed campaign of Democratic state Sen. Jason Carter, the grandson of the former president.

Deal’s aides are reminding grass-roots supporters and county organizers that early voting starts Monday. And the campaign hosted a voter drive for volunteers at its Atlanta headquarters over the weekend.

One of Deal’s GOP challengers, former Dalton Mayor David Pennington, said he expects a low primary turnout will magnify his numbers. Pennington said he expects the most hard-core conservatives, whom he is counting on to upset Deal, will turn out over the next few weeks.

“We are hearing positive things from people across Georgia,” he said last week from a newly opened Sandy Springs campaign office. “People are very receptive to our message.”

A Democratic trial run

State Democrats, who face fewer bruising primary contests than their GOP counterparts, are using the early-voting drive as a test run of sorts. Democrat Michelle Nunn, her party’s front-runner for the Senate seat, has led workshops in cities across Georgia to prepare volunteers to drive the turnout for the upcoming votes.

“I have a high expectation for what we can do with volunteer engagement,” she recently told a few dozen volunteers in Athens.

Democrats’ underdog hopes in statewide races this year hinge on mobilizing large numbers of new voters to take advantage of demographic trends that reflect a rising number of newcomers and minorities.

“We have a fight ahead,” U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta told thousands of Democrats who gathered for the party’s premier fundraiser last week. “We need to register people to vote because we must win.”