Under previous

law the primary would have been July 16 with a runoff date of Aug. 6.The

date change provisions only apply to primary elections in the year following

the reapportionment of legislative and congressional districts. Under

the bill the 2004 General Primary date will revert to the third Tuesday

in July, and candidate qualifying will begin the fourth Monday in April.

Another change

local voters will encounter, Dunn said following a recent meeting of the

Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, will be new voting machines,

to be paid for by the state.

According to

Secretary of State Cathy Cox, Georgia's record in the 2000 elections was

worse than Florida's, with 94,000 votes not counted due to problems with

voting machines.