Election Candidate/voting Options

In Georgia candidates for political office have several options.

Minor political body via party convention also may require petitions collected based on specified numbers and are subject to acceptance and validation by the office of the secretary of state.

Independent candidate requires petitions in the same manner as minor political bodies.
Write-in candidate no qualifying fee, no petitions. Requires notice published in a general circulation newspaper and declaration form. Other entities can file for a candidate which also requires a candidate permission form. The candidate name is not printed on the ballot and must be written in by the voter. Write-in votes are only counted for legally qualified candidates. Names of write-in candidates are supposed to be listed in each poll and with absentee ballots. Voters should contact a pollworker to find out where the qualified write-in candidates list is posted. Voters may not use their phone in the poll booth so early check and writing down the official candidate name to take to vote with you is necessary. This can be bypassed by checking the Secretary of State MVP web site while voting absentee other than at the poll. If a list of qualified candidates is not in with an absentee ballot they can check the MVP web site for their qualified candidates or check with their election office.

The above candidate categories are subject to various qualifying deadlines, the last one being write-ins in September before the general election.

This is the Election Assistance Commission Write-in Voting document.