Watch Mail For Voter Registration Cards This Week

This week, voters across East Atlanta Patch, should have received their voter registration precinct cards.

Your precinct card will tell you:

• Precinct name
• Polling place
• City precinct name
• City polling place
• Voting districts, including Congressional and state house and senate

It's important to read those cards as voting districts in some parts of our Patch have changed following the state's redistricting of state and house districts.

As Jeffrey Landers, president of the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League noted, his neighborhood now is split between two house districts — Rep. Simone Bell, D-Atlanta, of District 58, and Rep. Margaret Kaiser, D-Atlanta, of District 59.

In other cases, districts have been redrawn, which has resulted in some House or Senate members losing their seats.

Rep. Pat Gardner, D-Atlanta, represents District 57.

As redrawn, the district now includes a tiny portion of Summerhill, a piece of the Capitol Gateway community and the portion of Downtown around the Georgia State University campus, among other communities.

Now, Gardner faces another Democratic incumbent, Rep. Rashad Taylor, in the primary set for July 31. Taylor currently represents District 55.

If you don't have your card, you can go to the Georgia Secretary of State's My Voter Page to plug in your information to see if you're registered and what to do if you're not.

If you intend to vote in the General Primary on July 31, 2012, that the voter registration deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, July 2, 2012.

To register to vote in Georgia, you must satisfy these requirements:

1. Be a citizen of the United States
2. Be a legal resident of Georgia and of the county in which you wish to vote
3. Be at least 18 years of age on Election Day. Once the Department receives the completed voter registration application, precinct cards are mailed within two to three weeks of that receipt.

Registering for the first time in Georgia? You'll have to provide one of the following forms of ID:

• Any valid state or federal government issued photo ID, including a FREE Voter ID Card issued by the county registrar’s office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS)
• A Georgia Driver’s License, even if expired
• A valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state
• A valid U.S. passport ID
• A valid U.S. military photo ID
• A valid tribal photo ID
• A copy of a current utility bill
• A bank statement
• A government check
• A paycheck
• Any other government document that shows the name and address of the individual