Primary election day in Georgia arrived Tuesday as voters braced for lines and social distancing at the polls.
It will be a unique election held amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Voters will be spaced 6 feet apart. Few people will be allowed to vote at a time. Some precincts have closed. Voters will wait for touchscreens to be wiped down to limit the spread of germs.
But many voters are undeterred. Over 1.2 million people have already voted, three-quarters of them with absentee-by-mail ballots, allowing them to avoid human contact at the polls.
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Voters will decide on many candidates, from president to county sheriff. The ballot also includes races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and the Georgia General Assembly.
The primary launches Georgia's new voting equipment, which adds a paper ballot backup to the state's voting process for the first time in 18 years. The $104 million voting system features touchscreens attached to printers that create paper ballots.
Precinct locations and sample ballots can be viewed online on the state's My Voter Page at www.mvp.ga.sos.gov.
Voters who received absentee ballots but haven't yet returned them can deliver them to drop boxes set up across metro Atlanta. Absentee ballots will be counted if they're received by 7 p.m.
Precincts will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voter resources
>> Voter guide for June 9 primary and general election
>> Where to find ballot drop boxes in metro Atlanta
>> How Georgia's new voting machines work
>> Georgia's primary: How to vote in an unprecedented election