Early Voting Runs from Monday October 17 - Friday, November 4. General election day is Tuesday, October 8. Scroll down for a complete list of early voting locations.

Not sure if you're registered? Don't know your polling place? Not to worry! Visit My Voter Page for this info and more.

For other election information, visit Project Vote Smart and The League of Women Voters' Georgia Voter Guide

Early Voting Locations:

10/17/2011 - 11/04/2011
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Days: M,Tu,W,Th,F
For Chattahoochee Hill Municipal Races and Issues
Chattahoochee Hills City Hall
6505 Rico Road
Chattahoochee Hills, GA  30268

10/17/2011 - 11/04/2011
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM, Days: M,Tu,W,Th,F
For College Park Municipal Races and Issues
College Park City Hall
3667 Main Street
College Park, GA  30337

10/17/2011 - 11/04/2011
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Days: M,Tu,W,Th,F
For Mountain Park Municipal Races and Issues
Cherokee County Elections Office
400 E. Main Street
Canton, GA  30114

10/17/2011 - 11/04/2011
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Days: M,Tu,W,Th,F
Fulton County Government Center
130 Peachtree Street
Suite 2186 B
Atlanta, GA  30303

10/17/2011 - 11/04/2011
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Days: M,Tu,W,Th,F
Fulton County Government North Service Center
7741 Roswell Road NE
Suite 232
Sandy Springs, GA  30350

10/17/2011 - 11/04/2011
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Days: M,Tu,W,Th,F
Fulton County Government South Service Center
5600 Stonewall Tell Road
Room 108
College Park, GA  30349

10/31/2011 - 11/04/2011
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Days: M,Tu,W,Th,F
For Mountain Park Municipal Races and Issues
Woodstock Library
7735 Main Street
Woodstock, GA  30188

Click here for Georgia WAND's guide to redistricting telling you everything you need to know about the Voting Rights Act, the new congressional maps, and what you can do.

"I am convinced that redistricting is important. This is the only chance we have to create rules for our political system. In making these maps the legislature defines the structure of our democracy. Over the last few weeks I’ve heard misapplications of the law and intentional falsehoods about the Voting Rights Act and I didn’t understand why, or the magnitude of what was going on, until late last week.

I kept trying to understand how the majority party could read the law, and understand the history, and come to the conclusion that they were correct about the Voting Rights Act. As I sat with John Lewis last week before he testified before the House Reapportionment Committee, I realized they don’t want to follow the Voting Rights Act. They want to change the Voting Rights Act because they don’t like the results. You want to turn the Voting Rights Act on its head and turn it into a tool of racial division instead of the tool of reconciliation that it is intended and was always intended to be. And you’ve done this with a campaign of misinformation about the meaning of Section 5 of the Voting Right’s Act. It confused the public, it confused the media, and it almost confused me. But I’m going to take 5 short minutes to set the record straight.

First, in drawing these maps there are two sections of the Voting Rights Act; Section 2 and Section 5. They are different laws.  Section 2 applies to the whole country and ensures equality of opportunity.

Section 5 is different and special. It applies only to certain places with a history of discrimination and is intended to remedy that discrimination to ensure that places like Georgia don’t take a step backwards. Section 5 forbids a state from diminishing the minority community’s ability to elect the candidate of its choice. Once a community like that has built power, you cannot diminish that power. That’s called retrogression and it is illegal by command of the United States.

Now, the majority party has paraded around with the case of Bartlett versus Strickland. Senator from 46 has talked about it. The Republican majority whip in  the House sent to email list last week and talked about on the floor. The Republican lawyers have told you that the Voting Rights Act doesn’t care about any district unless that district is majority minority. You’ve heard that this Bartlett case says you don’t consider multiracial coalitions you don’t consider cross over districts where the black community is not a majority but where it can band together with the white community and still elect the official of their choice. 

Based on this legal theory that was articulated again this morning, the majority party has destroyed multiracial coalitions at every opportunity. As they stand today in this senate, there are 14 districts that are majority minority and there are at least 7 where multi-racial coalitions can and have elected candidates of their choice.

Now, the new map creates one additional majority minority district at the expense of at least 4 districts where multi-racial coalitions have been successful. One of those districts, the 14^th, has been eliminated entirely. The congressional map does exactly the same thing. It eliminates three crossover districts in favor of 2 majority minority ones. That’s retrogression. There are fewer districts now, in which communities can elect the candidates of choice.

Now, in targeting and penalizing multiracial coalitions this body has chosen a policy that ‘we want black districts to elect black candidates and white districts to elect white candidates’ and they’ve blamed this on the Voting Rights Act. That is false. We’ve said there are a host of issues to this illegal choice that has been made. You’ve said that the Voting Rights Act requires the creation of majority minority districts. Bartlett versus Strickland, the Supreme Court, says the opposite. “Our holding should not be interpreted to entrench majority-minority districts by statutory command.” You’ve heard that multi-racial districts and crossover districts don’t matter under the Voting Rights Act. Again, the Supreme Court says the opposite as noted in the context of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Various studies have suggested that the most effective way to maximize minority voting strength is to create more influence of crossover districts. The court goes on to say that crossover districts are by definition the result of white voters joining forces with minority voters to elect their preferred candidate.

The Voting Rights Act was passed to foster this cooperation. Today this body is going to vote to say that these districts are irrelevant and the Voting Rights Act provides no protection. That cannot be law and indeed it is not. The Supreme Court in Bartlett gave clear guidance about precisely the campaign that this general assembly has waged against multi-racial coalitions. This the Bartlett case: “if there were a showing that a state intentionally drew district lines in order to destroy otherwise effective crossover districts that would raise serious questions under both the 14^th and 15^th Amendments.”

That is what you’re doing in the Senate map and it’s what you’re doing in the 12^th district of the congressional map. We know it. The Republican whip in the House, who I’m happy to see has walked in has been quoting the legislative history and the report issued when congress amended the Voting Rights Act. Chairman of the Reapportionment Committee quoted that history and that legislative report again. Let me tell you what that report says about multi-racial coalitions in Section 5.  Here’s the house report: “Voting changes that leave a minority groups less able to elect a preferred candidate of choice either directly or when coalesced with other voters cannot be pre-cleared under section 5.”

 Somehow there was a bill of goods that was sold by the Republican lawyers to this body and the taxpayers and the voters who have to pick up the tab. My question is why. Why have we decided to take an extreme view of the Voting Rights Act and twist the law and go to such great lengths to undermine the racial coalitions and the multi-racial coalitions  that we’ve built in this state? Here the answer is the same sad answer as always: partisan politics.

Here’s the elephant in the room: the majority party is destroying districts where  multi-racial coalitions are electing candidates because they do not like the candidates that those voters elect. And that’s because multi-racial coalitions in Georgia elect Democrats.

Let’s look at the data. In Georgia we don’t keep track of how people vote by race, but we do keep track of which party primary people vote in. According to the secretary of state’s web page the 2010 Republican primary was 95.7 percent white. The 2008 Republican presidential primary was 95.7 percent white. The July 2008 Republican Primary was 95.9 percent white. By way of comparison that same July 2008 Primary on the democratic side was 49.4 percent white and 48.2 percent black.

 Now, I’ve heard criticisms that the Voting Rights Act should not be a democratic incumbent protection plan, and I agree. It doesn’t protect democrats but it does protect the power that black voters have acquired from building multi-racial coalitions. That’s what congress said in the statute, it’s what they said in their legislative history, it’s what the Supreme Court has said, even in the Bartlett decision that has been trumpeted by Republicans. The partisan results of that are not the fault of the Voting Rights Act and if you don’t like the partisan results of protecting multi-racial coalitions, the answer is not to destroy the Voting Rights Act, it’s to go and build multi-racial coalitions of your own.

I’ll conclude with this: I’ve heard numerous reports about how this round of redistricting is going to doom the Democrats in Georgia. But the statistics up there, they demonstrate that if nothing changes there’s only one party that’s doomed. Today, the leadership of this state, if we adopt these maps, is going to confirm its policy of undermining multi-racial coalitions. But, you know what? In the end it won’t matter. We live in an international economy and a global community and every business person knows it. The future of this state is a multi-cultural, multi-racial future. It is a future where people of all races will live together, work together, prosper together and will govern this state together. Today, there’s only one party that can claim to be the party of that future. These maps are wrong, they’re going to be struck down, and if you vote for them you’re going to be on the wrong side of history."

What was the vote result of the reapportionment bill HB20EX?

• HB 20EX - Georgia Congressional Reapportionment Act of 2011 was passed in the House on August 25^th 2011 and passed in the Senate on August 31
• The Governor signed the bill on September 6^th 2011
• The bill is now headed to federal courts for approval under the Voting Rights Act
• Depending on the court’s decision, the Georgia State Legislature will then determine when and if the bill will go into effect.

What is the voting rights act?
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) bans racial discrimination in voting practices by the federal government as well as by state and local governments.

Passed in 1965 after a century of deliberate and violent denial of the vote to African-Americans in the South and Latinos in the Southwest – as well as many years of entrenched electoral systems that shut out citizens with limited fluency in English – the VRA is often held up as the most effective civil rights law ever enacted. It is widely regarded as enabling the enfranchisement of millions of minority voters and diversifying the electorate and legislative bodies at all levels of American government.

(Information taken from the Department of Justice)

How does the voting rights act apply to redistricting?
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act applies the re-drawing of district lines nation wide as it forbids a voting standard, practice or procedure from reducing the opportunity of members of a covered minority to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice. In practical terms, this non-discrimination provision prohibits districting practices that, among other things, result in "packing" minorities into a single precinct in an effort to limit their voting strength. Also, "fracturing" or "cracking" minority populations into small groups in a number of precincts, so that their overall voting strength is diminished, can be discrimination under Section 2. There is no magic number that designates the threshold of packing or cracking. Each plan must be judged on a case-by-case basis.

 Section 5 is different. It applies only to certain places with a history of discrimination and is intended to remedy that discrimination and prevent retrogression. Section 5 forbids a state from diminishing the minority community’s ability to elect the candidate of its choice. Once a community like that has built power, you cannot diminish that power.

(Information taken from the Department of Justice)

 What is retrogression? Is it happening in Georgia?
Retrogression applies to the Department of Justice to a pre-clearance review under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act as to whether the new plan has the purpose or the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color. This Section 5 standard has been called the "retrogression" standard. In effect, it considers whether a minority group has been made worse off by a proposed change in voting standards, practices or procedures, such as a redistricting plan.

So, what the majority party has done in Georgia during the 2011 redistricting process is pack minority-majority districts. Rather then have a district reflect a multicultural community – they have created several black and one Latino majority-minority districts,  but eliminated many districts with strong multiracial coalitions that allowed minorities coalesced with whites to elect the candidate of their choice. This is taking away the power that minorities in those districts have built and thus is considered by many Georgians to be retrogression.

 What can Georgians do?
Tell the courts and your elected officials that you want your voting rights back!

Your Representatives
Department of Justice
State Attorney General

After a brief video on redistricting, panelists Larry Pellegrini, Georgia Rural Urban Summit, Nancy Abudu, American Civil Liberties Union, and Senator Horacena Tate gave a non-partisan and informative overview of what's going on under the Gold Dome this week in terms of redistricting, and what that means for Georgia voters.

The event, moderated by Kelli Persons of the League of Women Voters, culminated in a lengthy Q and A session, which highlighted the growing public concern about the redistricting issue.

Huge thanks goes to all our panelists, the dynamic group of Georgia women legislators that attended, community members that attended, and Central Presbyterian Church, which graciously hosted the event.

Do you feel like you don't know enough about the redistricting process? Want to know how it effects you? Want to learn more in general?

Come be a part of the 2012 election movement! Join Georgia WAND as we introduce our 2012 We Count! voter engagement campaign.

• Meet new We Count! director, Carolyn Rodriguez-Monden.
• Learn what's new in 2011 and beyond as we gear up for the 2012 election season.
• Network with representatives from our partner groups from across Georgia.
• Find out about upcoming We Count! events.
• Sign up to be part of the We Count! Team or learn more about the many ways in which you can get involved.

When: Thursday, July 28, 5:00-7:30pm*

Where: Manuel's Tavern North Room, 603 N. Highland Avenue, Atlanta

We all count and we're counting on you to make get out the vote efforts in Georgia successful!

We Count!, launched in 2010, is a grassroots voter empowerment movement to expand the electorate in Georgia by engaging with diverse communities and building alliances across race, class and  gender lines. During election years, the campaign is centered around registration, education and mobilization.

For more information about the event, or to find out how you can get involved, contact Carolyn Rodriguez-Monden at carolyn@wand.org

*Please feel free to come at any time during the 2.5 hours for this informal event. Many of us will head to the King Center between 7 and 7:15 pm to bid our farewells and warm wishes to photographer and activist Al Viola who will be moving to Iowa in the coming weeks.

To welcome her to the Georgia WAND community yourself, email her at carolyn@wand.org.

Carolyn is dedicated to public service. She served as the constituency liaison in the 4th Congressional District office and in the same capacity for Mayor's Office in the City of Atlanta, for almost a decade. She also worked as Chief of Staff to State Representatives Stacey Evans and Margaret Kaiser in the 2011 Georgia General Assembly. Carolyn is no stranger to electoral politics. She served as volunteer coordinator for Amir Farokhi’s 2009 Atlanta City Council bid and as minority outreach director during State Representative Elena Parent's 2010 campaign.

Carolyn is a graduate of the White House Project 'Go Run' Training and Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) Institute for Leadership. She also serves as Chair of the Latino Caucus of the Democratic Party of Georgia.

In her work at Georgia WAND, Carolyn is responsible for outreach across the state to engage voters and help build a more progressive Georgia. Some of her efforts include voter drives and neighborhood canvassing, voter volunteer events, educational forums with local respected speakers, and candidate forums in key districts with local media coverage as well as facilitating phone banking to educate voters on early voting locations and dates, to direct voters to information about the candidates, and to offer rides to the polls.

Carolyn earned a degree in communication with a minor in political science from Oglethorpe University.

The WeCount! Campaign also involves a young voter engagement project. We are partnering with state-wide universities as well as student-led organizations such as Southern Energy Network, Go-Green Alliance, and other environmental justice groups. We are co-designing several issue-oriented educational programs to encourage students to get more active in local politics and to register to vote. Georgia WAND will facilitate relationships between new, emerging young women leaders dedicated to change in Georgia and established progressive legislators (WiLL members) and community leaders to demystify the political process and encourage engagement in the decision-making processes that will affect their lives.

Interested in joining the campaign? Contact Carolyn Rodriguez Monden carolyn@wand.org today!

In a meeting with Dr. Inez Triay, Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management for the Department of Energy, Georgia WAND members from Shell Bluff, downstream from nuclear Plant Vogtle expressed their concerns about the lack of environmental monitoring in Georgia.

Dr. Triay assured them that it was an Environmental Management priority to restore environmental monitoring to the Georgia side of the Savanah River, something that the Department of Energy has not been funding for the past 6 years.

Georgia WAND members Lillie Wilson, Shirley Fields and Annie Laura Stephens in the Georgia delegation say they are deeply concerned about public health in their home county as well as the safety of the two new proposed reactors at Plant Vogtle, especially considering the threat of earthquakes as Georgia sits on a fault line.

“We are concerned about the safety factors regarding the two reactors that are located in Waynesboro,” Fields said. “We want to see what can be done for us for them to look at what’s going on with the environment, wildlife, the families and their health.”

Georgia WAND also highlights the danger of investing in this high risk form of energy and the resulting rate hikes Georgia Power ratepayers have already been faced with, as Georgia Power received $3.4 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. government to build two new reactors at Plant Votgle.

The Georgia delegation, Annie Laura Stephens, Lillie Wilson, Shirley Fields, Dianne Valentin, Betsy Rivard, Susan Goodman, Cee Cee Anderson,  Melanie Weniger, Emilia Kaiser, Courtney Hanson and Amanda Hill-Attkisson, worked with colleagues from a dozen other states who were in DC for the 23rd annual Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) "DC Days." The activists met with with over 80 Senators and Representatives, leaders of congressional committees that oversee nuclear issues, and key federal agency staffers to discuss these and other existing and proposed nuclear projects, which they say will waste billions in taxpayer funds, damage the environment and undermine the nation’s non-proliferation goals.