What will be on the ballot for Chatham County's municipal elections on Nov. 2?

What positions are up for election?

This year, posts in Bloomingdale, Tybee Island, Thunderbolt, Port Wentworth and Garden City will be on the ballot.

In Bloomingdale, the mayoral seat and all six council slots are up for election.

Garden City’s District 1 and District 5 city council seats are to be contested, as is an at-large council position, meaning every city resident will have an opportunity to vote in at least one race.

Port Wentworth will be electing a mayor, an at-large council member and council members for District 1 and District 3.

In Thunderbolt, the mayor and the entire council are up for election. The top six vote-getters win the council seats.

On Tybee, three of the city’s six council seats are on the ballot. These seats are currently held by John Branigan, Michael "Spec" Hosti and Monty Parks.

Additionally, Vernonburg will have four council seats and their mayor-like intendant position on the ballot, though the town of under 200 people usually doesn’t hold a formal election unless seats are contested.

Candidates qualified this week through the Chatham County Board of Elections.

Has my polling place changed?

Since the January runoff elections, the Chatham County Board of Election has adjusted some polling places, specifically those in West Chatham.

In July, the BOE voted to split Precinct 7-11 into three separate precincts, citing "amazing population growth" as the reason for the change.

In doing so, they created two new precincts: 8-17 and 8-18. Precinct 8-18 will vote at the Savannah First Seventh Day Adventist Church at 50 Godley Way, Savannah.

Precincts 7-11 and 8-17 will still vote at Georgia Tech’s Savannah campus located off Jimmy Deloach Parkway. The location will serve as a temporary polling place for precinct 8-17 for the municipal election, as the BOE searches for a permanent location elsewhere.

In Garden City, Precinct 7-01 will vote at First Baptist Church of Garden City, 35 Nelson Ave. Precinct 8-15 will now vote at the Cooper Center, located at 700 Davis Ave.

Additionally, Precinct 7-09, formerly housed at Savannah Holy Church of God, will now use the Adult Ministry Center at Compassion Christian Church, located at 50 Al Henderson Blvd.

Voters can check their updated polling place at the Georgia Secretary of State's website: www.mvp.sos.ga.gov.

Can I still request an absentee ballot?

In 2020, COVID-19 led many Georgians to vote absentee for the first time. A record 1.3 million absentee ballots were cast in the 2020 general election, outnumbering election day votes by over 341,000.

Since then, every Georgian has had an opportunity to get vaccinated. But with the delta variant driving residents back towards social distancing and masks once again, the no-crowds appeal of absentee voting could see a resurgence.

But now, the process has become more complicated, as the Republican-controlled state legislature’s passage of SB 202, “The Omnibus,” has changed the way voting absentee works in Georgia.

The law cuts the time to request a ballot by more than half. Before, voters could request an absentee ballot 180 days out from election day. Now, the earliest voters can apply for an absentee ballot is 11 weeks — 78 days — from election day.

That day has already passed. Monday, Aug. 16 was 78 days before Nov. 2, meaning you can now request an absentee ballot for the municipal election.

However, the Secretary of State’s Office’s online ballot request portal will not be available for the Nov. 2 election, Communications Manager for Voter Education Walter Jones said. Jones said this was due to conflicts with the vendor contracted to run the portal.

"The reason for the portal not being up and running is that S.B. 202 did require some changes, and our vendor hasn't finished that yet," Jones said. "We don't want to promise that it will be up and running soon."

Jones said the SOS office is expecting to have the online portal back up and running in future elections, but for the municipal election, those looking to get an absentee ballot will have to do it the old-fashioned way.

Voters can still request a ballot by email, but the process is much less streamlined.

To get an absentee ballot, you’ll need a driver's license number or a state ID number or a photocopy of an alternate voter ID.

The absentee ballot request form can be filled out on a computer or by hand. To return the ballot request form to Chatham County Board of Registrars, voters have a few options: U.S. mail, email, fax or in-person delivery.

The deadline to complete a ballot application has been moved up, as well. Previously, it was the Friday before election day. Now, it’s two Fridays before election day, or Oct. 22 this year.

Counties will now begin to mail out the ballots four weeks before the election, as required by S.B. 202. Previously, it was seven weeks.

The deadline to return a completed application is still the same though: 7 p.m. on election day. Voters had a few options to return them: mail it back, return it to the Board of Registrars in person, or by dropping it off at an absentee ballot drop box.

The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 2 election is Oct. 4.

Will Peebles is the enterprise reporter for Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at wpeebles@gannett.com and @willpeeblessmn on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: What will be on the ballot for Chatham County's municipal elections on Nov. 2?