Georgia voting law does not make it a crime to drop off grandma’s ballot

Georgia’s newest election law has drawn a series of attacks on social media.

"#Georgia’s new anti-voting law makes it a JAIL-TIME CRIME to drop off grandma’s absentee ballot in a dropbox. #SB202," said a Facebook post written by Greg Palast, an investigative freelance reporter who has been published in Rolling Stone and Al Jazeera. 

Palast called SB 202 a "horror show" and made the same claim on Twitter about criminalizing the return of grandma’s ballot.

The Facebook post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

So are grandchildren going to be hauled off in handcuffs to jail if they turn in grandma’s absentee ballot? In a word, no. 

Palast posted a screenshot of section 47 of SB 202, a sweeping elections bill signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp on March 25.

The relevant portion of the law says that anyone who "accepts an absentee ballot from an elector for delivery or return to the board of registrars except as authorized by subsection (a) of Code Section 21-2-385 shall be guilty of a felony."

Some commenters on Palast’s social media posts noted that those exceptions in that pre-existing Georgia code do allow relatives to return ballots on behalf of a family member.

Code Section 21-2-385 says that an elector with an absentee ballot: "shall then personally mail or personally deliver same to the board of registrars or absentee ballot clerk, provided that mailing or delivery may be made by the elector's mother, father, grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, spouse, son, daughter, niece, nephew, grandchild, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, or an individual residing in the household of such elector." 

So that means a long list of relatives can legally return a completed ballot on behalf of an elector — including a grandchild for their grandparent. (The section also states that caregivers of disabled electors can mail or deliver completed ballots as can jail employees on behalf of inmates.)

Keith Williams, general counsel to House Speaker David Ralston, confirmed that under SB 202 someone can still drop off their own grandma’s absentee ballot in a drop box, mailbox or post office. The law does extend the ban on people who are not relatives or roommates from dropping off someone’s absentee ballot to include drop boxes (unless they fall under other exceptions). In that pre-existing Georgia code, there was no mention of drop boxes. In 2020 drop boxes were allowed under an emergency rule due to the pandemic.

Another Georgia law already made unlawful possession of ballots a felony, but SB 202 also makes it clear that unlawful delivery of completed ballots is a felony.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office also confirmed that someone’s grandchild can still put their absentee ballot in the mail or a drop box under the new law.

Featured Fact-check

Donald Trump

stated on November 17, 2020 in a fundraising email

Says Georgia’s secretary of state won’t let the people recounting ballots check the signatures for fraud.

We emailed Palast and told him that SB 202 and the pre-existing code allows someone to still drop off their own grandma’s absentee ballot or the ballot of another relative. We asked Palast if he saw something else in SB 202 that indicates you can’t submit your own grandmother’s ballot, and did not hear back.

A Facebook post stated that Georgia’s new voting law SB 202 "makes it a JAIL-TIME CRIME to drop off grandma’s absentee ballot in a dropbox."

That’s not the case. Under the new law, a long list of relatives can still legally return a completed ballot on behalf of an elector — including a grandchild for their grandparent. 

We rate this claim False.

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