https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE Expo
    • Calendar of Events
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

News


Image via Unsplash

Article

Problem-plagued election leads to state investigation into Georgia voting

Problem-plagued election leads to state investigation into Georgia voting

  • Written by Jason Axelrod
  • 10th June 2020

The Georgia Secretary of State has announced his intention to investigate what caused a chaotic primary Election Day in which faulty voting machines caused long voting lines and confusion.

Immediately after polling sites opened on June 9 at 7 a.m., long lines began to form, the BBC reports. This was partly due to social distancing practices being taken. But technical issues with voting machines also contributed to long lines.

Many technical issues occurred in Fulton County, which covers central Atlanta, The Hill reports. At 7:33 a.m., Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tweeted that none of the voting machines in one of Atlanta’s largest precincts were working.

In other counties, waits of over two hours, a shortage of provisional paper ballots or voting machines and voting machines malfunctioning were reported, according to Patch.

Because of this, multiple counties including Chatham, Fulton and Muscogee Counties received approvals to keep their polling places open an extra two hours, until 9 p.m., Politico reports.

LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, told Politico that it took her nearly three hours to vote. She left her polling place drove to a predominantly white polling place and was dismayed to find no line. “I come over to this side of town, and white folks are strolling in. On my side of town, we brought stadium chairs,” she said.

The last voter cast their vote in a Union City, Ga., church at midnight, after waiting five hours to vote, FOX 23 news reports.

Georgia introduced new voting systems following a ruling last year that required the state to phase out paperless voting machines by 2020, according to The Hill.

Additionally, some poll workers were hired at the last minute and received on-the-job training because other poll workers had quit due to coronavirus-related concerns, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

“Even the poll workers don’t know what to do,” DeKalb County (Ga.) Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson told the newspaper. “These are new machines and you expect people to run them in less than a couple of months? If this is a preview of November, then we’re in trouble.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called boring-related circumstances in Fulton and DeKalb Counties “unacceptable” in a statement and said that he would investigate the counties, according to NBC News.

“Obviously, the first time a new voting system is used, there is going to be a learning curve, and voting in a pandemic only increased these difficulties. But every other county faced these same issues and were significantly better prepared to respond so that voters had every opportunity to vote,” Raffensperger said in the statement, per NBC.

However, the CEO of DeKalb County has called for an investigation into Raffensperger’s office.

“It is the secretary of state’s responsibility to train, prepare and equip election staff throughout the state to ensure fair and equal access to the ballot box,” CEO Michael Thurmond told CBS News.

“Those Georgians who have been disenfranchised by the statewide chaos that has affected the voting system today in numerous DeKalb precincts and throughout the state of Georgia deserve answers,” Thurmond added.

Tags: Administration News Administration News Article

Most Recent


  • citizen
    How to move to a citizen-focused engagement model
    We know that engaged citizens play a critical role in helping make government agencies more transparent, more effective and more accountable. In fact, putting increased attention on digital government services and the citizen experience was ranked as one of the biggest changes that state chief information officers expected to continue post-pandemic. But too often, many […]
  • crisis
    Navigating crises with confidence: Five ways strategic plans support crisis response
    Some crises are short-lived, barging through our lives and routines, and before we can get a sense of what’s happened, we’re left dealing with the aftermath. But many crises build slowly, with many early warning signs, and once they’vehit their breaking point, panic and uncertainty overwhelm the ability of leaders to think clearly and mitigate […]
  • 2022 Crown Communities Award winner: Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts' jury selection system
    The Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts is revolutionizing the jury selection process.  In many jurisdictions, jury duty is perceived as an obligatory nuisance. On their appointed day, potential jurors arrive early and stay late. They read books or watch television to pass the time as judges and attorneys make in-person selections from the pool of […]
  • digital
    How to leverage digital tools to drive innovation in government
    The rapid evolution of digital technologies transformed the way governments function, making them more efficient, transparent and citizen-friendly. Rather than relying on crystal trophies, governments can leverage digital tools to drive innovation and streamline processes, benefiting the population they serve. Open data and crowdsourcing Open data refers to making government data available to the public, […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • NLC releases State of Cities 2021 report
  • North Texas alliance partners with Marketplace.city on smart government solutions
  • Harris County deploys next-generation security in 150 public buildings
  • The Colonial Pipeline attack: What it means for critical infrastructure, and why businesses need to have a plan in place

White papers


5 reasons why Plan Examiners need Objective Trapeze

30th May 2023

7 Permitting & Licensing Fails Slowing Community Growth

24th May 2023

The Secret Ingredient to Local Government Employee Retention

23rd May 2023
view all

Webinars


How to Centralize and Build a Grants Management Process at your Organization

24th May 2023

Making Permitting Easier: What We’ve Learned Helping America’s Largest Cities Improve Their Permitting Process

16th May 2023

Digital Property Tax Collection: Tales from the Trenches of Modernization

16th May 2023
view all

PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

GALLERIES


10 best suburbs for city-like living

1st June 2023

Gallery: Annual index ranks America’s top performing cities; most are in the West

30th May 2023

Gallery: Top 10 American cities for seasonal and summer jobs

25th May 2023
view all

Twitter


Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.