ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State says he would support efforts by the Georgia General Assembly to end general election runoffs in the state.
Brad Raffensperger released a statement Wednesday calling on lawmakers to discuss runoff reform during the 2023 legislation session.
“Georgia is one of the only states in country with a General Election Runoff,” Raffensperger said. “We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I’m calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the General Election Runoff and consider reforms.”
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Under current Georgia law, a candidate must receive than 50% + 1 vote in the general election to avoid a runoff. If no candidate meets that criteria, the race goes to a runoff between the top two vote-getters.
Georgia lawmakers reduced the time between general election and runoff from nine weeks to four during the last legislative session. Several county elections offices expressed concerns over the shortened time frame, saying it made it more difficult for them to do their jobs.
It is something that Raffensperger acknowledged in his statement.
“No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday,” he said. “It’s even tougher on the counties who had a difficult time completing all of their deadlines, an election audit and executing a runoff in a four-week time period.”
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Cobb County Elections Supervisor Janine Eveler said earlier this month that it was a hardship on her office. That office had to delay sending out absentee ballots because the new four-week time frame also fell right in the Thanksgiving holiday.
“As all of the Georgia elections offices have been saying for quite a while, especially during the last legislative session, a four week turnaround from a general election to a general runoff is an almost impossible task,” Eveler said.
Lawmakers could eliminate the runoff system altogether or extend the time frame. State Rep. Jasmine Clark told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot last week that she will pre-file a bill before the General Assembly to extend the time frame.
Clark thinks the General Assembly should move slowly whatever it does.
“I think the appetite is there, but I think we need to take bite sized pieces and not just try to bite into the whole cake, because that’s not good for Georgia,” Clark said.
The General Assembly legislation session begins in January.
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