Voters encounter long wait times, broken machines on Election Day in Georgia
Georgia voters headed to the polls to cast their ballots in Election Day primaries Tuesday, but were met with a myriad of voting system issues that left locals frustrated and waiting in long lines.
The issues were widespread with problems reported in Midtown Atlanta to East Point on the city’s south side, to Columbus, about two hours south and Savannah on the Peach State’s coast, according to multiple outlets.
Photos and video shared online showed people lined up outside their local precincts, some sporting masks and practicing social distancing in light of the COVID-19 crisis.
“Voters have waited over 3 hours to vote,” Facebook user Terrence Flowers wrote of the wait at Canaan Baptist Church in Columbus. “Many voters were sent here last minute as their polling stations changed mysteriously overnight. (But) we must stay in line ... please don’t be deterred from voting.”
In Atlanta, some lined up as early as 6:45 a.m. — only to have their wait delayed by malfunctioning voting machines.
“At current pace, I have ~3 hrs to go,” Atlanta resident Sarita Alami tweeted early Tuesday, tagging Gov. Brian Kemp and the Georgia secretary of state’s office. “The ONE machine just broke. Oh, and my precinct is >90% Black. Is this kind of voter suppression a trial run for Nov?”
Tuesday’s voting system issues come after problems in the 2018 election, when voting precincts in largely black and low-income communities across the state were closed or consolidated. Of the 39 counties where polling places were closed, 30 had “significant African-American” populations, according to an analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Look at the areas where they’re closing precincts and consolidating. It’s usually in areas with poor people and minority communities that have less resources to get to other locations,” Helen Butler, the executive director for the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, told the newspaper.
But local election officials said it was a cost-saving measure “at a time when more Georgians are taking advantage of early voting,” according to the AJC.
Voting issues were also reported in DeKalb County, where precinct manager Jonathan Bames told NPR that problems with the state’s new voting machines forced officials to rely on provisional ballots — which were already in short supply. Bames said his precinct was only given 20 of the paper ballots.
“I have put in several voice messages detailing what we need and what assistance [we need],” he told the outlet. “No response.”
While some issues were due to down voting machines, other polling places saw problems with organization.
A pair of weaving lines at Barack Obama Elementary in South DeKalb left some voters very confused, according to the AJC. Jennifer Alton, 32, whose polling place was changed at the last minute, said voters were supposed to form two separate lines based on their respective neighborhoods.
Not everyone was aware of the lines, however, because poll workers failed to inform them, Alton told the newspaper.
“Poll workers shifted voters from one line to the other or one room to the other, which made voters appear to be cutting in line when they were not,” she said, the AJC reported.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger addressed the issues Tuesday, promising to investigate the problems reported in Fulton and DeKalb counties specifically.
“The voting situation today in certain precincts in Fulton and DeKalb counties is unacceptable,” Raffensperger said, according to local station 11 Alive. “My office has opened an investigation to determine what these counties need to do to resolve these issues before November’s election.“
The secretary of state acknowledged a “learning curve” on the first use of the state’s new $104 million voting system, but said other metro counties faced similar issues and “were significantly better prepared to respond so that voters had every opportunity to vote,” the news station reported.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson also called on the local board of elections to look into voting issues after several voting machine outages were reported in the coastal Georgia city.
“This appears to be a widespread issue,” Johnson told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.
In a statement, the Chatham County Board of Elections said it’s working to resolve “a variety of problems” reported at several precincts and is seeking permission to extend voting hours at the polling places that were affected.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Voters encounter long wait times, broken machines on Election Day in Georgia."