Long lines and technical issues
♦ The first day of early voting leads off with a rough start.
Long lines began forming around early voting locations Monday after technical issues and an above average voter turnout caught elections officials by surprise.
People standing in line outside the Floyd County Administration Building around noon said they had been waiting upwards of an hour or more as the queue extended down toward Broad Street.
Elections Board member Melanie Conrad said there were three things causing long lines — a higher than anticipated turnout, pollbook issues and, specifically for the Garden Lakes location, internet connectivity.
The vendor made a last minute adjustment to the electronic pollbooks used to check in voters, she said, and the data wasn’t pulling up as it should.
“It’s essentially a statewide issue,” Conrad said. “The vendor made some changes last Friday and so the poll pad information wasn’t coming up correctly. We’re trying to work with that situation to try and get that fixed.”
Problems with the electronic pollbooks were among the issues that contributed to long lines across the state during the June primary election, along with high turnout, consolidated polling places and shortages of poll workers. Conrad said that, locally, the lines were not due to a shortage of poll workers.
Poll watchers reported that only one computer was available to check in voters at the County Administration Building and at Garden Lakes Baptist Church, leading to delays. Conrad said they installed a hotspot at the church to fix the additional connectivity issue there.
The elections board will likely discuss the issues at their board meeting on Thursday at noon. The regular monthly meeting had been scheduled for Tuesday but was bumped to Thursday after the polling problems emerged, and moved to the spacious Berry Shorter Room of the Forum River Center, 301 Tribune St. in downtown Rome.
Robert Brady, the county’s chief election clerk, told the Associated Press the poll-book issue initially slowed things down but it was resolved within about an hour.
“Typically in Floyd County, you have a line that lasts five minutes. Today it’s taking up to 30 minutes,” Brady said. “It’s because of the huge — and I’m talking about huge — turnout.”
However, people reported standing in lines an hour or more at the county’s polling locations well past noon.
In-person voting began Monday and runs through Oct. 30. Voters can cast their ballots at either the Floyd County Administration Building Community Room at 12 E. Fourth Ave. or Garden Lakes Baptist Church at 2200 Redmond Circle, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week.
The county administration building will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Garden Lakes early voting location will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Statewide issues
The Associated Press reported that issues arose early across the state.
Election officials in Fulton County were aware of an issue with the electronic pollbooks used to check voters in at State Farm Arena, where the Atlanta Hawks NBA team plays, county spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt-dominguez said. Technicians were on site working to resolve it, she said.
The line began moving when the arena opened for voting at 8 a.m. and some voters were able to cast their ballots, but things ground to a halt a short time later when the pollbooks stopped working with hundreds of people waiting. By mid-morning, the problem appeared to have been resolved and the lines had cleared at the arena, which is the largest early voting site in the state with 300 voting machines.
Some people lined up before dawn to be among the first to participate in early in-person voting, which runs through Oct. 30 in Georgia. Turnout also may have increased because Monday is a federal holiday, so more people are off work.
While voters must vote at their assigned polling place on Election Day, they can vote at any voting site in the county where they live during early voting.
With record turnout expected for this year’s presidential election and fears about exposure to the coronavirus, election officials and advocacy groups have been encouraging people to vote early, either in person or by absentee ballot.
Natalie Rawlings, 49, started the morning at a library offering early voting in Atlanta, but said there was no parking and a long line. So she decided to head to State Farm Arena. She got in line, and it didn’t move for 45 minutes.
She said someone came out and announced that there was a “known software issue” they were hoping to work through. A handful of people left, but most stayed. Overall, it took Rawlings about an hour and a half to vote, but she said she’d waited in line longer during early voting in Florida, so she wasn’t frustrated.
“I’m outside. It’s a nice day. They’re giving water away. There are worse things. And everybody is appropriately socially distanced,” she said.
She got an absentee ballot but didn’t trust the postal service, so she turned in the blank absentee ballot to poll workers before voting in person Monday.
Rawlings, a Democrat, said she feels this election is more important than others because of the “coarseness” of the language she’s heard from President Donald Trump and his seeming lack of respect for other branches of government and world leaders: “It’s gotta end.”
In heavily populated Cobb County northwest of Atlanta, people were waiting two to four hours Monday morning, Elections and Registration Director Janine Eveler said.
“We’d prepared as much as we could, but there’s only so much space in the rooms and parking in the parking lot. We’re maxing out both of those,” Eveler said.
“People are double parking, we have gridlock pretty much in our parking lot,” she added.
In Macon, Seth Clark arrived to vote at the main election office at about 9:30 a.m. Monday and found a U-shaped line wrapping around the parking lot. He was still waiting 90 minutes later, estimating he’d gotten through only about half the line.
“I’ve never seen this many people on the first day of early voting,” said Clark, who won election over the summer to a nonpartisan seat on the Macon-bibb County commission.
The long line was in part caused by coronavirus precautions. People stood six feet apart and wore masks, Clark said. Some brought along folding chairs and books.
“It seems to be going smoothly,” Clark said. “It’s just a lot.”