2023 CODE OF GEORGIA › Title 21 - ELECTIONS (§§ 21-1-1 — 21-5-76) › Chapter 2 - ELECTIONS AND PRIMARIES GENERALLY (§§ 21-2-1 — 21-2-604) › Article 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 21-2-1 — 21-2-19) › Section 21-2-2 - [Effective 1/1/2025] Definitions

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 marking device" means a pen, pencil, or similar writing tool, or an electronic device designed for use in marking paper ballots in a manner that is detected as a vote so cast and then counted by ballot scanners.
(2.1)
"Ballot scanner" means an electronic recording device which receives an elector's ballot and tabulates the votes on the ballot by its own devices, also known as a "tabulating machine."
(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. Such term shall not encompass ballot marking devices or electronic ballot markers.
(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.
(7.1)
"Electronic ballot marker" means an electronic device that does not compute or retain votes; may integrate components such as a ballot scanner, printer, touch screen monitor, audio output, and navigational keypad; and uses electronic technology to independently and privately mark a paper ballot at the direction of an elector, interpret ballot selections, communicate such interpretation for elector verification, and print an elector verifiable paper ballot.
(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 paper ballots that are read by ballot scanners.
(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
.
(19.1)
"Optical scanning voting system" means a system employing paper ballots on which electors cast votes with a ballot marking device or electronic ballot marker after which votes are counted by ballot scanners.
(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.
(32.1)
"Scanning ballot" means a printed paper ballot designed to be marked by an elector with a ballot marking device or electronic ballot marker or a blank sheet of paper designed to be used in a ballot marking device or electronic ballot marker, which is then inserted for casting into a ballot scanner.
(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 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;
(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
; and
(E)
In the case of the State Election Board exercising its powers under subsection (f) of Code Section
21-2-33.1
, the individual appointed by the State Election Board to exercise the power of election superintendent.
(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.
Amended by 2024 Ga. Laws 580,§ 3, eff. 1/1/2025.
Amended by 2022 Ga. Laws 782,§ 21, eff. 5/2/2022.
Amended by 2021 Ga. Laws 9,§ 3, eff. 3/25/2021.
Amended by 2019 Ga. Laws 24,§ 1, eff. 4/2/2019.
Amended by 2016 Ga. Laws 347,§ 1, eff. 4/26/2016.
Amended by 2010 Ga. Laws 632,§ 1, eff. 7/1/2010.
Amended by 2006 Ga. Laws 874,§ 1, eff. 1/1/2007.
Amended by 2005 Ga. Laws 53,§ 1, eff. 7/1/2005.
Amended by 2003 Ga. Laws 10, § 1, eff. 5/14/2003.
Amended by 2003 Ga. Laws 209, § 1, eff. 7/1/2003.
Amended by 2002 Ga. Laws 769,§ 1-1, eff. 5/13/2002.
Amended by 2002 Ga. Laws 769,§ 2-1, eff. 4/1/2003
Amended by 2001SP Ga. Laws 2EX10, §1, eff. 9/26/2001.
This section is set out more than once due to postponed, multiple, or conflicting amendments.