With all the hubbub of the Nov. 8 presidential election focused on major party candidates, it might be easy to forget you have other options when it comes time to cast your ballot.
More than a dozen other candidates have actually qualified to be considered this fall beyond those you see on the touch screen of your voting machine. For president alone, Georgia has 17 write-in candidates including independent Evan McMullin of Utah and Green Party nominee Jill Stein. There's also a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate, and others have qualified for local races.
How do voters ‘write-in’ a candidate?
In Georgia, it’s not as simple as writing down Daffy Duck. Because it won’t count.
All qualified write-in candidates in Georgia have met a Sept. 6 deadline that required them to publish a classified ad notifying the public of their intent to run for public office, and then a Sept. 12 deadline to file paperwork and an affidavit with the state.
You can look up these candidates under the Elections tab on the Georgia Secretary of State's website (www.sos.ga.gov). Once you are on the Elections page, just look for "candidate info" near the top header and then select "qualified candidate information" in the drop-down menu.
A full list of qualified write-in candidates is also available at every polling place on request.
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