Attacking the troops is no way to lead
This is a copy of a letter sent Wednesday to Brad Raffensperger,
Georgia Secretary of State, 214 State Capitol, Atlanta, Georgia 30334 from the Floyd County Board of
Commissioners.
Mr. Raffensperger, As the Chair of the Floyd County Commission, I would like to respond to you in regards to your statement to the media concerning the June 9, 2020, primary in Georgia.
From an article by Beau Evans titled “Outraged: Long lines, equipment stumbles bruise Georgia primary” in the Capitol Beat News Service, and published in the Rome Newstribune, you are quoted that the problems would be traced to “a lack of training and planning” by county elections officials, noting most of Georgia’s 159 counties were not experiencing technical issues with voting machines. You also stated, “By and large, what it comes down to is the competence of the county director. It’s not really a machine error. What it’s been is user error, just lack of training for the poll workers.”
In Floyd County, we operated with three weeks of early voting as prescribed by the State. During this time, we operated with no issues. Unlike your assertion, our poll workers were trained and we suffered no disruptions during this period.
Our issues came on the day of the election when trying to scan our absentee ballots. We were informed by the company’s representative that the Dominion machine which was provided by your office was not configured correctly to process the approximately 12,000 absentee ballots that were submitted in Floyd County.
Yes, we did have hiccups early in the day, but those problems were corrected. And, unlike other counties who had to extend their hours because of problems at the polls, we did not have to extend our times. We were able to close at 7 p.m. as scheduled. However, as it stands, it is 3:47 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10, 2020, and we still do not have a final vote total because of a software problem.
Your statements implied to our constituents that the problems we are still suffering have to do with a lack of leadership on the local level whereas this was not the case. This problem has stemmed from faulty equipment that was provided from your office on the State level.
So, now I would like to pose to you: Who had the responsibility of ensuring that the equipment that was sent to the counties in Georgia were properly configured? Who will stand up now and take the blame for this preventing our election to be called last night like our surrounding counties? Who will correct your statement to the press that it wasn’t necessarily a lack of leadership for all but that technology problems did exist within some counties, Floyd being one of them.
I appreciate your willingness to stand in the fire and work daily to protect the integrity of Georgia elections; however, from one fellow elected official to another, casting stones against your teammates and the troops on the ground does not inspire one to follow the leader.