State Senate race risks being overlooked

Low- key special election in District 39 takes place alongside Nov. 3 vote.

Adding more confusion to an already contentious election cycle, some Fulton County voters may be missing a chance to vote for their next state senator.

After Sen. Nikema Williamswas chosen to replace U. S. Rep. John Lewis as the Democratic candidate for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District following his death, a special election was called to select her replacement in the state Senate. That special election in Senate District 39 is set to take place alongside the Nov. 3 general election.

The special election is technically a Democratic primary, since all the candidates are registered as Democrats. However, the winner will replace Williams because no Republican or independent candidates were nominated.

When voting in person, poll workers should ask voters in the 39th District whether they would like to vote in the Democratic primary special election. If a poll worker does not ask, voters can request that the special election be added to their ballots. On absentee ballots, the special election is included if the voter checked a box to indicate that it should be added to their ballot.

Running for Williams’ vacated seat are Zan Fort, Sonya Halpern, JoAnna Potts and Linda Pritchett. According to Fort, son of former state Sen. Vincent Fort, voters fromthe 39th District are not consistently being informed that they can add the special election to their ballots.

“Whena voter walks in a polling place and gets the voting card and puts it in the machine, they ought to see all the elections they are eligible to vote in,” Fort said. “Anything less is voter suppression.”

In records supplied by the Fort campaign, a voter who communicated with his teamsaid Fulton poll workers appeared to think the special Democratic primary election was an error. The voter told poll workers that a race was missing from their ballot, so poll