The Act eliminates the nonpartisan primary for state and county officials and provides that candidates will be elected in a nonpartisan election held in conjunction with the general primary. The Act allows for the outer envelope of absentee ballots to be opened before the polls close on election day, and provides for opening of inner envelopes in special circumstances. The Act requires the counties to transmit a list of people who have died, been declared mentally incompetent, or have been convicted of felonies to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State will remove the names of deceased persons from the list of electors, and send the lists of mentally incompetent people and felons to the appropriate counties for removal from the elector lists. This Act also allows the Constitutional Amendments Publication Board to create a fifteen-word title for any proposed constitutional amendments, and put the caption on the ballot along with the full text of the amendment. The Act also creates a Twenty-First Century Voting Commission, which will study different election methods and machines, and will determine which method and machine should be implemented throughout Georgia. The Secretary of State is authorized to conduct pilot projects of new voting machines in the 2001 municipal elections. By the July 2004 primary election, each county will be provided with the new election machines, at state expense.
