The 2022 runoff election  for Georgia will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 6. But I  participated in early voting and voted this week. I had just voted in the general election about  a month or so ago and had an awful experience. Fortunately, that experience was not a repeat. It was actually quite pleasant.

Reason for Runoff in Georgia

But before I share the good news, let me explain why there  is a runoff in Georgia in the first place. According to the Georgia election code  a candidate must win a majority of votes (50%+1) to be elected to office. If that doesn’t happen, a runoff election of the top two candidates is held.

Additionally, here is a little history   from Voice of America to make things even more spicy. “The runoff system was instituted in 1964 after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling that found Georgia’s election system violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because votes cast in small rural counties counted more heavily than votes cast in large urban jurisdictions. A 2007 U.S. Interior Department study said Georgia’s runoff system was proposed to “circumvent” the Black voting bloc.”

I get it. This runoff is important to my state and to me as a Black woman. I have voted in runoff elections before and shared my experience here on my blog. I put up with the numerous phone calls, text messages, mailbox flyers and the endless volume of TV commercials. Also, this time around there were folks canvassing my subdivision. Twice in one week people came knocking on my door about voting.Didn’t Vote in Local Precinct

Didn’t Vote in Local Precinct

The actual voting experience was pretty uneventful and I didn’t have too many problems. The reason being is that I didn’t vote in my local precinct. I have had numerous problems over the years  voting in my community. Frankly, I am about done with all of it. After the general election I was so frustrated I knew I had to do something different.

Voting at Headquarters a Better Experience

So, what I did was go and vote at my county headquarters  office. The commute was longer but well worth  it. I had no problems getting help with the paperwork. I  had no problems being escorted to the accessible voting machine or using it. No problems  casting my ballot. And no problems being escorted out of the precinct. As a matter of fact, the poll workers  looked out for me and made sure I connected to my transportation.

It was a noticeable difference. So, you know what I am doing moving forward? Voting at headquarters. This of course, means voting early. But that is not a problem because I do it anyway. What I really think is there is a major breakdown  between my local precinct  and headquarters. Something is truly off. Since I have been dealing with this for so long, I don’t have the bandwidth  to help them figure it out and correct the problem. So, in the future I will go  some place else.

Keeping up with political information and candidates is hard enough. I don’t need the extra. I believe all people should be able to vote independently, privately  and stress-free. This includes me too.