Politics & Government

Fulton Voting Problems Equal Headaches for Buckhead Voters

Secretary of State says Fulton County was not prepared for Election Day.

Several Buckhead voters, like others in Fulton County, were forced to cast provisional ballots because their names were somehow missing from the county's registration rolls on Election Day.

According to an 11Alive news report, the Georgia Secretary of State's office plans to investigate the Fulton Elections Board following numerous voter complaints on Tuesday.

Fulton County polling sites faced a slew of problems: outdated voter registration rolls, broken machines and even power outages. One polling location in south Fulton opened late because the polling managers there did not have the correct keys to unlock the voting machines.

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Valerie Traber, a Buckhead resident, said she updated her address from Athens to Atlanta a couple of days before the registration deadline.

Traber printed out her confirmation and brought it with her to her polling precinct, Sara Smith Elementary, where she was informed that her registration had not been updated with Fulton County. She would need to vote using a provisional ballot, she was told.

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However, because so many voters were having the same issue, the precinct had run out of provisional ballots.

"They were really great here (at Sara Smith) and called me once the provisional ballots came in so I didn't have to wait all day," Traber said.

Katherine Robinson also experienced problems due to outdated voter rolls at Buckhead precincts.

Robinson said that after she and her twin sister moved from their downtown Atlanta home to Buckhead, they updated their voter registration information. Robinson's sister received her new voter registration card, but Robinson's never came.

On Election Day, poll workers at Buckhead Library told Robinson that her registration still showed her previous downtown Atlanta address and that in order to vote, she had to cast a provisional ballot.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp says Fulton County could face fines for not being properly prepared for the elections. Following the 2008 Presidential election, Fulton racked up $120,000 in fines.

“What really concerns me about Fulton is we’re talking about dozens, maybe even hundreds,” Kemp told WSB-TV.

Sharon Mitchell, Fulton's interim elections director, said in a news conference that Tuesday's problems were not as widespread as in other years.

Mitchell attributed Fulton's voting problems to a lack of comprehensive training for poll workers, according to WSB.

The allegations follow a day when Fulton County sent out several Tweets imploring voters to remain patient and assuring that anyone in line by 7 p.m. would get to vote. At 2:30 p.m., the county sent out the following notice that it was deploying additional vehicles to help in the delivery of extra supplies to voting stations:

The Fulton County Manager’s office has deployed eight additional vehicles to be dispatched to the elections warehouse in order to expedite the delivery of supplies to various locations. In some cases, supplies have been depleted due to the volume of voter turnout today.

These eight additional vehicles will be on call for the election team for the remainder of the day.

"I just hope that vote gets counted," Traber said.


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