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Georgia Peanut Gallery Provides Guidance on State Drop Boxes

A ballot drop box provides a secure and convenient means for voters to return their mail ballot. A drop box is a secure, locked structure operated by election officials where voters may deliver their ballots from the time they receive them in the mail up to the time polls close on Election
Day. Ballot drop boxes can be staffed or unstaffed, temporary or permanent. Source: eac.gov

The US Elections Assistance Commission’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council and Sector Coordinating Council’s Joint COVID Working Group released a ballot drop box report to provide guidance for state, local, tribal, and territorial election officials on how to administer and secure election infrastructure in light of the COVID-19 epidemic.

At a minimum, you should have a drop box at your main county or city office building. Voters generally know the locations of these buildings and are already accustomed to voting or doing business there.

Some other best practices include:
? Have one drop box for every 15,000–20,000 registered voters.
? Consider adding more drop boxes to areas where there may be communities with historically low vote by mail usage.
? Use demographic data and analysis to determine whether there should be a different formula for rural and urban locations (i.e., 1 for every 15,000 residents may be every mile in an urban are, but every 50 miles in a rural area).

Based on these recommendations, the Peanut Gallery is providing a state list detailing how may drop boxes would be needed for each Georgia county, based on their number of registered voters, to be compliant with EAC’s guidelines.

View the complete of all 159 county recommendations here.

Other groups have also weighed in by urging the GA Secretary of State and the State Election Board to adopt commonsense drop box strategies. Read the full letter they sent Brad Raffensperger.


Did you know that the public can attend Board of Registration and Elections meetings? 

These meetings are open to the public by Georgia law. Georgia Open Meetings Act.

Become a Peanut Gallery Volunteer Monitor at our next training on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 6 pm. Sign up Here

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The Georgia Peanut Gallery is an initiative of the New Georgia Project.