What you should know about early voting in Georgia and North Carolina

CNN
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Two key states — Georgia and North Carolina — begin early in-person voting this week.

Because of a flurry of legislative changes and the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the experience could be different for many voters heading to the polls in the coming weeks.

In Georgia, voters can go to the polls starting Tuesday and in North Carolina, early in-person voting begins Thursday. Here are a few things you should know about how voting and elections work in two key swing states.

Fewer mailboxes, but more opportunities to vote early

New state laws after 2020 that tightened rules for absentee voting and limited the availability of drop boxes could make the option less attractive than early in-person voting, election experts said.

While many drop boxes were available 24 hours a day in 2020, there will be fewer of them this year, and they will be located at election offices or early voting locations, whose hours tend to be similar to regular business hours.

“The mailboxes have become so inconvenient to use that fewer voters can use them,” said Kristin Nabers, Georgia state director of All Voting is Local. “I don’t want to discourage people from using mailboxes by any means, but I can understand why people think it’s easier to drop by in person.”

Meanwhile, in-person early voting options have expanded: Georgia law requires early voting on two Saturdays and allows early voting on two Sundays if a county requests it.

Restrictions on feeding people in line

A 2021 law criminalizing the offering of food or drink to voters waiting to cast their ballots – which received wide coverage in news outlets and was immortalized by comedian Larry David in episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” – largely survived legal challenges. Therefore, offering a bottle of water or a snack to voters within 150 feet of a building where ballots are being cast remains prohibited.

The law also sought to prohibit offering food or drink within 25 feet of a voter standing in line, even if the voter was well over 150 feet from the building where ballots were cast. A judge paused that provision, allowing voting rights groups to offer so-called queue relief to voters who may be standing in particularly long lines.

I hope to speed up the results, but fear the uncertainty

The Peach State has made several changes to deliver faster election results to voters. On election night at 8:00 p.m. ET, counties must announce the results of their early in-person and absentee ballots. As counties tabulate Election Day votes, they will provide updates during regular interviews. According to the Georgian Foreign Minister, the aim is to deliver quick, fair and transparent results.

At the same time, several new rules passed by a Donald Trump-backed Republican majority on the Georgia State Election Board are creating uncertainty in the post-election process. The board adopted a rule requiring a hand count of ballots at each voting location, which could potentially delay the release of results.

The board also adopted rules that allow county officials to review extensive election materials before certifying the results and require those officials to conduct an “appropriate investigation” before certifying the results.

There are ongoing lawsuits related to any new rules that Democrats and voting rights activists fear could be exploited by county-level officials seeking to challenge election results or delay the certification process.

Impact of damage from Hurricane Helene

Officials in North Carolina scrambled after Hurricane Helene to ensure residents could continue to cast their votes.

“I think there will be a decline, it's hard to really predict how much,” Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said of the storm's impact on voter turnout. “But I’m encouraged by the State Board of Elections’ response so far to educate people about what to do and how to vote.”

Visit the North Carolina State Board of Elections website for up-to-date information on relocated polling locations, how voters can vote if they lost their ID in the storm, and how displaced voters can request new mail-in ballots.

As for early voting sites, the 25 western counties most affected by Helene had 80 early voting sites planned. 75 of them will be operational when early voting begins. “Given the devastation and destruction left behind by Helene, it is absolutely outstanding that our county election officials were able to pull this off in Western North Carolina,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state elections board, said in a briefing last week.

State officials are also still working to secure everything from generators to portable toilets to open as many polling places as possible on Nov. 5, Brinson Bell said.

No more grace period for postal ballots

Voters considering voting by mail should note that unlike 2020, their ballots must be received by 7:30 p.m. ET on Election Day.

During the last presidential election there was a three-day grace period for receipt of ballots, which has since been eliminated.

New voter ID rules

This is the first presidential election in which Tar Heel State residents are required to show ID when voting. Acceptable forms of identification include a driver's license, passport, and student photo ID cards approved by the State Board of Elections.

There are exceptions when a voter is unable to provide identification, and one of those exceptions is a natural disaster. In this case, voters fill out an ID exemption form that is included with their ballot. The state Board of Elections notes that county boards of elections are required to count provisional ballots that include ID exemption forms.

Both Georgia and North Carolina prohibit photographing ballots.

“Everyone takes selfies these days, even baby boomers like me,” said Phillips of Common Cause North Carolina. “But there is definitely a law that doesn’t ban selfies.”

Phillips noted that voters are still able to bring their cellphones to a polling place if they want information about who they are voting for. This is not the case in every federal state.

CNN's Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.