VOTE IN THE JANUARY 5TH RUN-OFF ELECTION! NOW IS THE TIME TO PREPARE... (Steve Toggerson, modified JYR_11/8/2020)

DATES TO REMEMBER

November 18 - Request Absentee Ballot

December 7 - Last Day to Register to Vote or Change Address

December 14- Early in-person voting begins

January 5 - Run-off Election Day

Several options are available to request an Absentee Ballot, although they will require more effort on the part of the voter. You can either:

Go by the Board of Elections office on Grayson Highway and fill out an application, OR
Call the Gwinnett Board of Elections at 678-226-7210 and request that an absentee ballot be sent to you, OR
Access the following link: https://www.gwinnettcounty.com/static/departments/elections/pdf/2020_English%20Absentee.pdfand
1. download the Gwinnett County application
2. complete it and
3. hand-deliver or mail it to the Gwinnett Board of Elections, 455 Grayson Highway, Suite 200, Lawrenceville, GA 30046. You can also scan or take a picture of your signed application and e-mail it to absentee@gwinnettcounty.com. It is my understanding that they have 3 days to respond to your request.
If you prefer to complete the form on-line on the Secretary of State's website, download the following file:

https://sos.ga.gov/admin/files/Absentee%20Ballot%20Fillable%20form%20720.pdf OR

Go to sos.ga.gov, (a) click on "Am I Registered to Vote", (b) enter your personal information and then (c) click on the Absentee Ballot at the bottom of your voter information page when it comes up. Then (d) select the Absentee Ballot application which (e) you need to print, (f) complete (including the date of election - January 5th), and (g) sign. Then either (h) send or deliver the form to the Gwinnett County Board of Elections at the address listed above, or (i) take a photo or scan the application and (j) e-mail it to absentee@gwinnettcounty.com.

If you already requested a ballot be sent to you for every election in this "season" and you have not then voted in person after making such a request, you should automatically be receiving your ballot within a week after [not yet known]. Otherwise, you must complete a new request since you will have been dropped from the list of people who should automatically receive their ballot without anyone notifying you of that fact.

Finally, you can access the Secretary of State's new portal where you can request an absentee ballot entirely on-line.

Please keep in mind that in spite of all the additional effort required to obtain an absentee ballot, it remains the safest way to vote. Not only do you protect your health and avoid standing in long lines, but you can also check on the status of your absentee ballot every step of the way at mvp.sos.ga.gov from (1) when your request was received and (2) when your ballot was issued to (3) when your ballot is received and (4) when it was accepted.

**NOTE: Please encourage everyone you know to vote by mail and help them if necessary by printing out a request for an absentee ballot form for them or telling them to call the Board of Elections (678-226-7210) ASAP and request that a ballot be sent to them.

If you decide to vote early or on election day, you must turn in your absentee ballot at your polling location. Your ballot will be canceled and you will be allowed to vote an electronic ballot at the poll.

Ballot drop boxes are available for absentee/advance by mail ballots.

Gwinnett Voter Registrations and Elections will continue offering secure ballot drop boxes to provide eligible voters a way to return absentee/advance by mail ballots. No postage is necessary on ballots placed in the drop boxes.

Official ballot drop boxes feature 24-hour surveillance and will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week across Gwinnett County. The ballot drop boxes are available at these locations:

Gwinnett Voter Registrations and Elections Beauty P. Baldwin Building, 455 Grayson Highway, Suite 200 Lawrenceville
Bogan Park Community Recreation Center, 2723 North Bogan Road, Buford
Dacula Park Activity Building, 2735 Old Auburn Avenue, Dacula
George Pierce Park Community Recreation Center, 55 Buford Highway, Suwanee
Lenora Park Gym, 4515 Lenora Church Road, Snellville
Lucky Shoals Park Community Recreation Center, 4651 Britt Road, Norcross
Mountain Park Aquatic Center,1063 Rockbridge Road, Stone Mountain
Shorty Howell Park Activity Building, 2750 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth
Gwinnett County Fairgrounds 2405 Sugarloaf Parkway, Lawrenceville

Additional drop locations are available at every public library. For address information on those locations, please visit the Gwinnett County Public Library website at www.gwinnettpl.org. Click on Locations and Hours.

Early in-person voting will take place at the above 9 locations beginning Monday, December 14th. The early voting hours:

Gwinnett Voter Registrations and Elections 8 AM - 5 PM

All other locations 7 AM - 7 PM

If you choose to vote on Election Day, January 5th, you will vote at your local precinct from 7 AM - 7 PM.

NOTE: Between the hours of 9:30 AM & 4:30 PM, any voter who is disabled and requires assistance or who is 75 years of age or older, can request to vote immediately at the next available voting station without having to wait in line.

Below is a list of the offices included in January 5th Run-off:

U.S. Senators (2)
U.S. House of Representatives
Public Service Commissioners (3)
State Senators
State House of Representatives
District Attorney
Clerk of Superior Court
Sheriff
Tax Commissioner
Chair, Board of Commissioners
Board of Commissioners, Districts 1, 3
Board of Education, Districts 1, 3, 5
Judge, Superior Court (6)
Judge, State Court (4)
Judge, Probate Court
Chief Magistrate

***IMPORTANT ELECTION UPDATES***

(Steve Toggerson, modified JYR_11/8/2020)

If you are concerned about the status of your absentee ballot, please take the time to read this. Below are important points to help you make an informed decision about how to vote.

1) Absentee ballot applications are processed and mailed from local counties, with fewer mail delays. No ballots will be mailed to anyone prior to the week of [not yet known].

2) The “Issued Date” in MVP is almost never the actual mailing date. If you want to know the date your ballot was actually mailed, visit https://georgia.ballottrax.net

3) When should you start being really concerned your ballot isn’t coming? Probably two to two and a half weeks after the mailing date (NOT the issued date). If it is December 28th and your ballot still hasn’t arrived, and you requested it more than two weeks prior, assume that it won’t show up and vote early in person or on Election Day.

4) Understand that if you decide to cancel your absentee ballot and go vote early in person, and you have NOT received your absentee ballot and cannot bring it with you, there is a much more significant
process to go through to cancel your ballot and vote in person. The poll workers must contact the county elections office by phone, get your ballot cancelled, have you sign an affidavit, and then vote. The phone call alone could take 5-10 minutes in the best of circumstances. Counties will already be overwhelmed due to Covid and huge voter turnout. You will be holding up others from voting by going through this process unnecessarily. If there are many people in line trying to cancel their ballots, the delays during early voting could be significant.

5) Turnout will be massive for this election. It is imperative that early voting be able to proceed without significant delays. Voting absentee takes some of the strain off early voting and Election Day voting.

6) When you get your ballot, return it to a drop box or to your county election office in person if at all possible. Avoids postal delays. Drop boxes will close at 7PM on January 5th. Your ballot must be in by then. A list of drop boxes can be found at https://faq.georgiavoter.guide/.../absentee-ballot-drop

7) It may still take several days or more for your ballot to show up as received and accepted in MVP and Ballottrax. There are going to be A LOT of ballots for counties to process. Yours will not be instantly
marked as received especially if you live in a large county.

8) Georgia counties will start scanning absentee ballots two weeks prior to Election Day. There will be some absentee ballot results on election night, but not all of them.

9) We need to be careful of making voting decisions out of unneeded panic. Canceling absentee ballots left and right to vote in person can cause more chaos than it solves.

10) If you need help requesting or completing an absentee ballot, step-by-step instructions around the whole process can be found here: https://faq.georgiavoter.guide/.../voting-absentee-by-mail

WEBSITES TO KNOW

www.mvp.sos.ga.gov

Check status
Election districts
Sample ballot
Track absentee ballot
Early voting locations
Poll location

www.ballotrequest.sos.ga.gov

Request absentee ballot

Or call the Gwinnett Board of Elections at 678-226-7210

Quick Reference Guide, click here.

SOCIAL SECURITY PRESS RELEASE:

New Economic Impact Payment Guidance

Please share the press release attached with your clients, colleagues, affiliates, and other interested parties. Below is a summary of the press release:

Treasury has launched a new Economic Impact Payment (EIP) web tool to assist individuals who normally do not file taxes. www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments
The eligibility requirements and other information about the Economic Impact Payments can be found at www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payment-information-center.
Social Security beneficiaries (receive benefits on the 3^rd or Wednesdays of the month) who do not have qualifying children under the age 17, do not need to take any action with IRS. Will receive economic impact payment (EIP) directly from IRS to bank account, direct express card or paper check.
Any new beneficiaries since January 2020, who did not file a tax return for 2018 or 2019, must visit the IRS Non-Filers Page: www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments
Social Security beneficiaries, who did not file a tax return in 2018 or 2019 and have qualifying children under age 17 need to visit www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments in order to receive the $500 per dependent child EIP timely in addition to the $1200.00 individual payment that will be automatically sent. Failure to proactively enter information will result in a delay in receiving the $500 dependent child EIP.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI- payment received on the 1^st of the month) recipients with dependent children under age 17 must follow the same procedures in order to receive the $500 child EIP payment timely.
Treasury and Social Security are working closely to determine how to automate EIP payments for Supplemental Security Income recipients.

Continue to stay up to date on Social Security’s response to COVID-19 by visiting www.socialsecurity.gov/coronavirus/.

Thank you,

Georgia Area Director’s Office

Social Security Administration

To read the entire press release, click here.