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2017 Georgia Code
Title 21 - Elections
Chapter 2 - Elections and Primaries Generally
Article 1 - General Provisions
§ 21-2-2. Definitions
Universal Citation: GA Code § 21-2-2 (2017)
- As used in this chapter, the term:
- (.1) "Activities of daily living" includes eating, toileting, grooming, dressing, shaving, transferring, and other personal care services.
- (.2) "Attendant care services" means services and supports furnished to an individual with a physical disability, as needed, to assist in accomplishing activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, and health related functions through hands-on assistance, supervision, or cuing.
- (1) "Ballot" means "official ballot" or "paper ballot" and shall include the instrument, whether paper, mechanical, or electronic, by which an elector casts his or her vote.
- (2) "Ballot labels" means the cards, paper, or other material placed on the front of a voting machine containing the names of offices and candidates and statements of questions to be voted on.
- (3) "Call" or "the call," as used in relation to special elections or special primaries, means the affirmative action taken by the responsible public officer to cause a special election or special primary to be held. The date of the call shall be the date of the first publication in a newspaper of appropriate circulation of such affirmative action.
- (3.1) "Campaign material" means any newspaper, booklet, pamphlet, card, sign, paraphernalia, or any other written or printed matter referring to:
- (A) A candidate whose name appears on the ballot in a primary or election;
- (B) A referendum which appears on the ballot in a primary or election; or
- (C) A political party or body which has a nominee or nominees on the ballot in a primary or election.
Campaign material shall not include any written or printed matter that is used exclusively for the personal and private reference of an individual elector during the course of voting.
- (4) "Custodian" means the person charged with the duty of testing and preparing voting equipment for the primary or election and with instructing the poll officers in the use of same.
- (4.1) "Direct recording electronic" or "DRE" voting equipment means a computer driven unit for casting and counting votes on which an elector touches a video screen or a button adjacent to a video screen to cast his or her vote.
- (5) "Election" ordinarily means any general or special election and shall not include a primary or special primary unless the context in which the term is used clearly requires that a primary or special primary is included.
- (6) "Election district" is synonymous with the terms "precinct" and "voting precinct."
- (7) "Elector" means any person who shall possess all of the qualifications for voting now or hereafter prescribed by the laws of this state, including applicable charter provisions, and shall have registered in accordance with this chapter.
- (8) "General election" means an election recurring at stated intervals fixed by law or by the respective municipal charters; and the words "general primary" mean a primary recurring at stated intervals fixed by law or by the respective municipal charters.
- (9) "Health related functions" means functions that can be delegated or assigned by licensed health care professionals under state law to be performed by an attendant.
- (10) "Independent" means a person unaffiliated with any political party or body and includes candidates in a special election for a partisan office for which there has not been a prior special primary.
- (11) "Managers" means the chief manager and the assistant managers required to conduct primaries and elections in any precinct in accordance with this chapter.
- (12) "Municipal office" means every municipal office to which persons can be elected by a vote of the electors under the laws of this state and the respective municipal charters.
- (13) "Municipality" means an incorporated municipality.
- (14) "Nomination" means the selection, in accordance with this chapter, of a candidate for a public office authorized to be voted for at an election.
- (15) "November election" means the general election held on the Tuesday next following the first Monday in November in each even-numbered year.
- (16) "Numbered list of voters" means one or more sheets of uniform size containing consecutively numbered blank spaces for the insertion of voters' names at the time of and in the order of receiving their ballots or number slips governing admissions to the voting machines.
- (17) "Oath" shall include affirmation.
- (18) "Official ballot" means a ballot, whether paper, mechanical, or electronic, which is furnished by the superintendent or governing authority in accordance with Code Section 21-2-280, including ballots read by optical scanning tabulators.
- (19) "Official ballot label" means a ballot label prepared in accordance with Article 9 of this chapter and delivered by the superintendent to the poll officers in accordance with Code Section 21-2-328.
- (20) "Paper ballot" or "ballot" means the forms described in Article 8 of this chapter.
- (21) "Party nomination" means the selection by a political party, in accordance with this chapter, of a candidate for a public office authorized to be voted for at an election.
- (22) Reserved.
- (23) "Political body" or "body" means any political organization other than a political party.
- (24) "Political organization" means an affiliation of electors organized for the purpose of influencing or controlling the policies and conduct of government through the nomination of candidates for public office and, if possible, the election of its candidates to public office, except that the term "political organization" shall not include a "subversive organization" as defined in Part 2 of Article 1 of Chapter 11 of Title 16, the "Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1953."
- (25) "Political party" or "party" means any political organization which at the preceding:
- (A) Gubernatorial election nominated a candidate for Governor and whose candidate for Governor at such election polled at least 20 percent of the total vote cast in the state for Governor; or
- (B) Presidential election nominated a candidate for President of the United States and whose candidates for presidential electors at such election polled at least 20 percent of the total vote cast in the nation for that office.
- (26) "Poll officers" means the chief manager, assistant managers, and clerks required to conduct primaries and elections in any precinct in accordance with this chapter.
- (27) "Polling place" means the room provided in each precinct for voting at a primary or election.
- (28) "Precinct" is synonymous with the term "voting precinct" and means a geographical area, established in accordance with this chapter, from which all electors vote at one polling place.
- (29) "Primary" means any election held for the purpose of electing party officers or nominating candidates for public offices to be voted for at an election.
- (30) "Public office" means every federal, state, county, and municipal office to which persons can be elected by a vote of the electors under the laws of this state or the respective municipal charters, except that the term shall not include the office of soil and water conservation district supervisor.
- (31) "Question" means a brief statement of such constitutional amendment, charter amendment, or other proposition as shall be submitted to a popular vote at any election.
- (32) "Residence" means domicile.
- (33) "Special election" means an election that arises from some exigency or special need outside the usual routine.
- (34) "Special primary" means a primary that arises from some exigency or special need outside the usual routine.
- (35) "Superintendent" means:
- (A) Either the judge of the probate court of a county or the county board of elections, the county board of elections and registration, the joint city-county board of elections, or the joint city-county board of elections and registration, if a county has such;
- (B) In the case of a municipal primary, the municipal executive committee of the political party holding the primary within a municipality or its agent or, if none, the county executive committee of the political party or its agent;
- (C) In the case of a nonpartisan municipal primary, the person appointed by the proper municipal executive committee; and
- (D) In the case of a municipal election, the person appointed by the governing authority pursuant to the authority granted in Code Section 21-2-70.
- (36) "Swear" shall include affirm.
- (37) "Violator" means any individual, partnership, committee, association, corporation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, professional corporation, trust, enterprise, franchise, joint venture, political party, political body, candidate, campaign committee, political action committee or any other political committee or business entity, or any governing authority that violates any provision of this chapter.
- (38) Reserved.
- (39) "Voter" is synonymous with the term "elector."
- (40) "Voting machine" is a mechanical device on which an elector may cast a vote and which tabulates those votes by its own devices and is also known as a "lever machine."
- (41) "Write-in ballot" means the paper or other material on which a vote is cast for persons whose names do not appear on the official ballot or ballot labels.
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