Two precincts extend voting hours as Macon voters deal with technical difficulties

The Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections decided Tuesday morning to keep two polling precincts open for an extra 30 minutes after some technical difficulties.

Mike Kaplan, chair of the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections, said the polling locations at Appling Middle School and St. Francis Episcopal Church will remain open until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“We had troubles with our poll pads and were not able to get completely open by seven o’clock, and so we made the decision to extend the voting another 30 minutes,” Kaplan said. “We were open but had some technical difficulties in those two locations, and I felt it best to extend voting about 30 minutes because that’s about what we were delayed.”

The poll pads were having trouble recognizing voting cards, Kaplan said, but he said he is not concerned that people did not vote due to the delay.

One Macon voter said a snafu at her polling place, Appling Middle School on Shurling Drive on the city’s northeast side, turned some people away Tuesday morning.

Kara Garrett said she began waiting in line shortly after 7 a.m. and that she waited half an hour or so to try and cast her ballot. But when she did she said her voting card didn’t work in the machine, and that a dozen or so other people she saw had similar issues with the machines showing “invalid card” errors.

“People were just stacking up by the machines saying their cards were not working,” Garrett said.

As machines were being repaired, she said, some people left, apparently choosing not to wait.

Garrett instead filled out what she described as an “emergency ballot” but only after poll workers had to search for one, which she said took about 10 minutes.

“I know I saw people leaving, just leaving. And one of the women I was walking out with ran into somebody she knew and said, ‘They’re not counting votes.’ And the word was kind of spreading through the parking lot and I saw people just turning away and leaving ... without sticking around for voting.”

The backup, she added, “was definitely stopping people from walking into the polls.”

Garrett said, “It’s sad because nobody knew what to do. It’s just unfortunate.”

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 2:32 PM.