Are the questions you see on May’s primary ballots legal? We get some answers…

Georgia voters heading to the polls are surprised by the number of non-voting questions on the ballot.

Channel 2′s Dave Huddleston looked into the matter after some people wanted to know if it was legal.

He found out not only is it legal, but both Republicans and Democrats have been asking voting opinion questions on the ballot since the 1970s.

What makes this year so different is the number of questions they ask.

Voter Sharon Gainey told Huddleston that she was shocked at the number of opinion questions on the primary ballot.

“It was a lot of questions this time,” she said.

Both political parties are asking multiple questions.

Republicans want your thoughts on transgender sports and should the government have the ability to mandate experimental vaccines.

Democrats are asking about legalizing marijuana and should the United States remove obstacles to economic advancement by forgiving all student loan debt.

Gainey wanted to know if the questions were legal.

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“I did get a little flag because I left one or two blank because I was like, I don’t think you should be asking that question,” Gainey said.

Other voters felt the same way.

“They were pretty good questions, but I was surprised to see so many,” another voter said.

Channel 2 political consultant Bill Crane says not only is it legal, but it’s been going on for decades.

“The parties have had the ability to do this for decades. They started in the 1970s. They don’t always use it,” Crane said.

This year there are about 10 questions.

Crane said voters in the 1990s may remember being asked if Georgia should participate in a state-run lottery.

He said the questions help the parties see what voters think.

“That’s essentially to get an extremely broad, sample, more than you can get with a poll of real Georgia voters and their sentiment on those issues,” Crane said.

Crane said in Putnam County there are 102 questions on the ballot.

Huddleston checked with the Secretary of State’s Office and almost 400,000 Georgians have already voted, up 22% more than the 2020 primary election.

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