Macon voters have a lot of significant decisions to make this year. In 2024, Bibb County residents will vote for sheriff, mayor, four county commissioners, state officers, the district attorney, U.S. President and other major officials. 

Below are all election days and deadlines for registration, absentee requests and submissions and potential runoff deadlines. 

You can check a comprehensive election calendar, your voter registration status and your voting precinct on the Georgia Secretary of State’s website. You can also find a sample ballot on Georgia.gov.

Important dates:

March 4-8: Candidate qualifying week for the Macon-Bibb County May and November elections. On March 8, candidates for county commission, tax commissioner, mayor, sheriff and the Macon Water Authority will be publicly listed.

March 4: The first day to request absentee ballots for the May 21 elections, which will have the nonpartisan election for positions like the mayor and county commissioners and the partisan primary for positions like the sheriff.

March 12: The official day of the Presidential Preference Primary; you can vote in person for your preferred candidate.

March 29: The final day to request an absentee ballot for any potential April runoff for the March Presidential Preference Primary.

April 1: The first day to vote early in the April runoff. The last day is April 5.

April 9: The day of the April runoff.

April 22: The deadline to register for the May 21 elections.

April 29: May Primary early voting opens, and on May 17 early voting closes. May 4 and 5 and 11 and 12 are the weekend voting days. Precincts are required to be open on May 4 and 11 and some will be open on May 5 and 12.

May 10: The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the May 21 primary.

May 21: County, State and Federal Partisan and Nonpartisan primaries begin. The “Nonpartisan Primaries” will function as the effective elections for nonpartisan positions like the four county commission seats left open by Elaine Lucas, Al Tillman, Mallory Jones and Virgil Watkins, Jr. 

June 7: In the event of a tie in the May Primaries, is the deadline to request an absentee ballot for a June runoff to decide the nonpartisan races.

June 18: County Nonpartisan Primary runoffs.

Aug. 7: The last day to file a special election for any county races not chosen in the primaries in conjunction with the November election. Partisan primary races, like the sheriff’s race, that end up with viable candidates in multiple parties will be decided in a general election on the same day as the presidential election on Nov. 5.

Aug. 19: The first day to request an absentee ballot for the Nov. 5 general election.

Sept. 6: The deadline for voting precinct changes. If there has been a change in the physical polling location in any precinct before the November general election, you will not be automatically alerted. To ensure that you know where to vote come November, check with local voting authorities after Sep. 6.

Sept. 16: The first day to request a December runoff absentee ballot in case there are any ties in the November general election.

Oct. 7: The last day to register to vote before the November general election.

Oct. 15 through Nov. 1 is the early voting period. There will be mandatory open precincts on Oct. 19 and Oct. 26, and some precincts will be open for early voting on Oct. 20 and 27.

Oct. 25: The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the November general election.

Nov. 4: The deadline to register before a potential December runoff for any ties in the November 5 general election.

Nov. 5: The General Election, this is when voters cast ballots for president and any of the partisan races that produced viable candidates from the May partisan primary.

Nov. 22: The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the December 

Nov. 25 through Nov. 27 is the early voting period for the December runoff

Dec. 3: General Election runoff for any remaining ties.