On April 3, the Georgia legislature passed SB 92, which contains all the recommendations of the Georgia Secretary of State for election law improvement except for the suggested reduction in the number of signtures for independent and minor party candidates. As reported earlier, the legislature removed the ballot access improvements after the chair of the House Rules Committee said advocates for greater ballot access improvement had been rude to him, so he was removing those parts.

However, the bill as passed has two minor features that could result in more fairness. One provision says that when a candidate pays the filing fee after receiving misinformation from an election official, and he or she is kept off the ballot because of the misinformation, the fee can be refunded. The other provision permits candidates nominated by convention to file earlier in the year if they wish to. Minor parties that polled less than 20% of the vote in the last election, but more than 1% (of the number of registered voters) are permitted to nominate by convention, without the need for a petition, but only for statewide office. This is why Libertarians are always on the Georgia ballot for statewide office. The old law did not permit these convention nominations to be filed until the summer, but now they can be filed earlier if the minor party wishes to file earlier. Thanks to David Shock for this news.