Fulton vote

Last week, Georgia’s election board released a report about the June election that shows more than 250 of Fulton voters didn’t receive the absentee ballots they had requested. Of that number, 107 didn’t cast a vote, but it’s likely many more voters were disenfranchised and didn’t report it.

On Sept. 3, the state board voted 2-1 to have the state attorney general’s office investigate the problems Fulton had in June.

Barron said part of the $14.5 million will help solve one of the biggest problems from June: proper polling locations. There was a slate of last-minute changes because places like senior care homes dropped out of hosting a precinct for fear of exposing their vulnerable residents to the coronavirus.

Barron said the new funds make it possible for them to woo back many polling places by promising to sanitize the space afterward.

On Friday, the county’s elections board approved a slew of polling place changes, of which affected voters must be notified.

Barron said they have made nearly 60 polling place changes in the last two weeks. He said he is nearing his goal of 240 locations. More locations mean spreading out the number of voters at each location, with the goal being fewer than 5,000 voters per polling place.

In June, there were extremely long lines at Park Tavern, which had 16,000 registered voters.

The new locations include more than the standard library or church. The county has had to get creative and partner with new folks because of the pandemic. For instance, Dad’s Garage Theatre, Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion and the Sherwood Event Hall in Sandy Springs will host voters in November.

“We went through a very challenging election in June,” Barron said. “I think there have been a lot of silver linings in that.”