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Burn the Playbook: October 13 · Burn the Playbook with Michael Starr Hopkins

• 0:00
  Georgia's early voting rule let voters use any early voting site in their county. Knowing that could change whether voting fit around a shift, school pickup, or a grocery trip. October 13th, 2026.
• 0:12
  Early voting opened that day for the November 3rd election. Early voting began October 13th for the November 3rd general election and ran through Friday, October 30th.
• 0:22
  During that window, voters did not have to use their own precinct's location. The county boundary mattered. The rule was any early voting site in your county, not any site in the state.
• 0:33
  The state's pages listed typical weekday hours of nine to five and Saturday hours of nine to four. Exact hours could vary. The first Saturday was October 17th. Some locations could also open on two Sundays.
• 0:45
  The state warned that hours could vary. Check the county sites and hours before leaving. The statewide rule does not set every local schedule. And the flexible location rule applied to early voting.
• 0:56
  It did not establish where someone should vote on November 3rd. Anyone waiting until election day still needed to check their assigned location.
• 1:04
  That distinction gets lost when election coverage turns entirely into a contest between candidates. A forecast can tell you what analysts expect. A county page can tell you where to go.
• 1:14
  For someone fitting a ballot around work or family, the second piece of information may be the one that gets used. Choosing an early day also leaves another chance if the first plan falls apart.
• 1:24
  The useful advice was straightforward: choose a county site, confirm its hours, and tell another Georgian who thought voting had to wait until November 3rd. The Senate race gave that voting window its political stakes.
• 1:36
  Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff faced Republican Representative Mike Collins.
• 1:40
  ABC News and the Associated Press projected Collins the winner of the June 16th Republican runoff, with about 55 and a half percent against Derek Dooley. Governor Brian Kemp had endorsed Dooley.
• 1:51
  Trump endorsed Collins days before the runoff. Representative Buddy Carter had been eliminated in the May primary. Then came a favorable forecast for Ossoff.
• 2:00
  Axios reported that the Cook Political Report moved Georgia from lean Democratic to likely Democratic on September 23rd. Axios described three Cook shifts that day, all toward Democrats. Axios reported the rating change.
• 2:13
  Likely Democratic was an assessment, not an election result. A campaign still had to turn support into ballots. A voter still had to choose a day and get there. Nobody could cast a rating.
• 2:25
  The polling average is not giving you a ride to the voting site. Then look at how Americans said they planned to vote. Marist surveyed 1,280 registered voters nationwide for NPR and PBS News on September 14th and 15th.
• 2:38
  Respondents were reached by live phone, text, or online. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. 22% said they planned to vote in person at an early voting location.
• 2:50
  52% planned to vote on election day. 23% planned to vote by mail or absentee. That was a national survey, not a Georgia poll. It measured stated plans, not ballots already cast.
• 3:02
  Early in-person voting and mail or absentee voting were only one point apart, inside the reported margin. The figures did not justify ranking one ahead of the other. The useful lesson was about time.
• 3:13
  Waiting for one day leaves less room to recover from a missed ride or a changed plan. Georgia's early window offered more days, with county details still needing a check. The forecast could wait.
• 3:24
  A voting plan needed a place and a day. Subscribe free at burn the playbook dot news for the reporting and next update. [upbeat music]