Georgia
GA Primary Election Dates, Deadlines 2024: What To Know
The primary will decide which candidate gets Georgia delegates to the Republican and Democratic national conventions, to be held in July and August, respectively.
That’s not to be confused with our state’s primary to select party candidates for state and county offices in the Nov. 5 general election. The primary for those offices is also on March 12 this year.
Here’s what you need to know about the 2024 election calendar in Georgia:
Presidential Primary
Georgia has 16 electoral votes at stake in the 2024 presidential election. We decide our preferences on March 12.
Our state has an open primary to select delegates to the national conventions.
A resident can vote in Georgia regardless of party affiliation. Registration does not extend an opportunity to affiliate with a party, and voters cannot change affiliation online through a registration portal.
Who can vote in Georgia?
- A person who is a citizen of the U.S.
- A person who is a legal resident of their county.
- A person who is at least age 17 1/2 to register and age 18 to vote.
- A person who is not serving a sentence for conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude.
- A person who has not been found mentally incompetent by a judge.
Voters must be registered to vote by Feb. 12. Registration can take place online via the Secretary of State’s Office or by downloading a printable application.
To vote online, residents must have a valid driver’s license or identification card issued by the Georgia Department of Driver Services.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot is March 1. Voters can request an absentee ballot online through the SOS office or by downloading a printable application. Completed ballots must be submitted to the elections office by 7 p.m. Election Day.
State Primary Election
The state-run primary election to select Republican and Democratic candidates for down-ballot races takes place in the general election on Nov. 5. Again, this is a primary open to all registered voters.
Among the key races are presidential, Supreme Court judges and congressional. Other state and local races to be decided include public service commissioner and appellate court judges.
The deadline to register to vote in the state primary is Oct. 7. The procedures to request a ballot are the same as in the primary.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 25 following the same protocol as in the primary.
General Election, Nov. 5
The general election ballot in Georgia will be certified on Sept. 16, and early voting begins on Oct. 15.
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USA Today Network
Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
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