Primary chaos puts Georgia in race to fix voting by November
ATLANTA — Coronavirus infections sidelined some poll workers and scared away others. New workers were trained online instead of in person. And when Election Day arrived, trouble with new voting equipment and social distancing precautions forced voters to wait in long lines, sometimes for hours.
The resulting chaos during Tuesday’s primary elections in Georgia resulted in a national embarrassment and for the second time since 2018 raised questions about the state’s ability to conduct fair elections. It also set off a scramble to identify and fix problems before the highstakes November general election.
“It scares me,” said Cathy Cox, a Democrat who oversaw Georgia elections as secretary of state from 1999 through 2007. “But hopefully it was such a traumatic experience for so many people, and appears to be such a black eye for Georgia, that it will ring the bell for elected officials to make significant changes.”
Tuesday’s breakdown drew the second round of stinging criticism for Georgia election officials since 2018, when the state’s closely watched gubernatorial election was marred by hourslong waits at some polling sites, security breaches that exposed voter information and accusations that strict ID requirements and registration errors suppressed turnout. That led to lawsuits and changes to state law that included the $120 million switch to a new election system.
Much of the outcry over the 2018 election targeted Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who still served as secretary of state when he ran for governor two years ago. Mr. Kemp has so far stayed silent on the most recent problems.
Like two years ago, activists say voting problems seemed to disproportionately affect areas with large numbers of minority voters in cities such as Atlanta and Savannah.
“We saw those overwhelming issues in black and brown communities predominantly,” Aklima Khondoker, state director of the advocacy group All Voting Is Local, told reporters.
Votes were still being counted Wednesday, including absentee ballots that topped 1 million — the result of many voters trying to avoid trips to the polls because of the virus. The possibility of an August runoff loomed in a high-profile primary race among Democrats seeking to challenge GOP Sen. David Perdue, meaning Georgia voters could face another logjam at the polls in just two months.
Metro Atlanta appeared to have the worst voting delays, with some voters reporting five-hour waits and and others giving up and leaving in frustration when confronted with long, slowmoving lines.
Voting hours were extended, and the last voters didn’t cast their ballots until around midnight.
“I did expect long lines. I wasn’t expecting it to be so unorganized,” said Kiersten Berry, 34, of Atlanta, who waited more than 3½ hours to vote Tuesday morning.
Georgia was in the midst of an ambitious statewide effort to replace outdated voting equipment when the coronavirus hit in March.
Fulton County Elections Director Rick Barron largely blamed the pandemic. Two poll managers tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, and other election workers simply did not show up, Mr. Barron said.
In-person training on the new voting system was held early in the year, but recent refresher sessions were held online because poll workers weren’t comfortable attending in person as the virus surged in Georgia.
The COVID-19 threat also meant many polling sites — such as at senior centers — could not be used, forcing consolidations. The county had 164 polling places instead of the planned 198.
On Election Day, poll workers who had not put their hands on the new machines in months got confused, Mr. Barron said, and their calls overloaded the county election office. There were instances of scanners powering down or jamming, he said, and in some places too many voting machines were plugged into the same circuit, causing them to flicker.