Absentee ballot applications from private groups causing confusion

ATLANTA — Keep an eye on your mail.

Millions of Georgians are receiving absentee ballot applications, but it’s not coming from the state of Georgia or your county election office.

Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Justin Gray looked into whether the applications are legitimate.

After mailing out absentee ballot applications to every active Georgia voter for the primary, the state of Georgia is not sending out any applications for the general election.

But millions of people are getting them in the mail anyway.

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Everyone from out-of-state voting rights groups to the Georgia Republican party are mailing out absentee ballot applications, which are legal and legitimate, but leaving some people scratching their heads.

Johns Creek resident Kim Krenz said she was confused when she got a mailer with Donald Trump on the cover and an absentee ballot inside.

“It looked like a piece of political campaign mail,” Krenz said. “It took me a little while. It took me a few minutes, because I was at first thinking, ‘This is how Georgia is sending it out? They can’t do that.’”

The Trump mailer was sent out by the Georgia Republican party and is legal. Those applications from private groups are accepted by your county Board of Elections.

Gabrile Sterling from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office said it’s confusing to voters.

“It’s a good intention,” Sterling said. “Essentially, they’re trying to make it easier for people to vote, but doing it the way they are doing it they are just confusing people.”

Instead, the Secretary of State’s office is encouraging voters to use its new statewide online political portal, which was launched on Friday.

In just four days, more than 40,000 voters already used it to apply for an absentee ballot.

One of the groups sending out the applications, the non-partisan Center for Voter Information, said they have already seen more than 270,000 Georgia voters request absentee ballots and mailed out more than 2.2. million, mostly to young people and minorities.

“We don’t send political messages,” an official with the nonprofit said. “Ours is just sending it out to key populations to encourage their involvement in the election.”

State election officials said if you do return an absentee ballot request for a private group, make sure its being mailed to your county election office, not back to that third party.

Federal judge says Georgia has to count all absentee ballots received by Election Day During the June primary, around 8,400 ballots were disqualified because they did not arrive by 7 p.m. that night.

Cox Media Group