How to Vote

• Check My Voter Page to make sure you’re registered and find your polling place.
• Go to the polls between 7 am and 7 pm on election day.
• Present your Georgia ID.
• This can be your driver’s license or a state identification card. In Georgia, your ID must have your picture. Your Voter Card will help but since it does not have your picture, is not enough on its own.
• The poll worker will scan your ID, checking your name against the list of voters registered in your precinct.
• If there is a problem with your registration or if you are at the wrong polling place, this is when you will be notified. Oftentimes problems can be easily solved—going home to get proof of residence like a utility bill, for instance.
• If you are legally registered in the state of Georgia and your name and address are current, you cannot be denied the right to vote.
• The poll worker will turn the console around for your to sign it.
• In a primary or a run-off election, the form asks whether you want a ballot for Democrats, Republicans or Independent candidates. Georgia primaries are by party so the ballot you receive will not have all the candidates running but only those for the party you choose.
• The poll worker will then give you plastic card with a large arrow, called a voter access card, for use in the voting machine.
• If you have never voted before or have questions about how to use the voting machine, ask. Poll workers receive extensive training and are there to help.
• Insert the voter access card arrow up into the voting machine and follow the instructions.
• As you cast your votes, the machine automatically moves to the next office.
• If you “under vote” either because you choose not to vote for that office or you forget, the machine will ask if you are sure you want to leave that section blank.
• If you try to “over vote,” cast more than one vote in the same race, the machine will prevent you from doing that.
• Here’s a video that walks through the new voting machines in Georgia. (There might be an ad at the beginning.)
• When you have completed your ballot, the machine will ask if you are ready to cast your vote. When you do so, a paper ballot will be printed out.
• Take your paper ballot to the scanner, put it in the scanner, and return the plastic card to the poll worker.
• Get your Georgia voter sticker and wear it proudly!