Board refers county’s election day issues for further review

ATLANTA — Georgia’s state election board on Thursday referred Election Day problems in the state’s most populous county during the June primary to the attorney general’s office for further review.

The referral, which was decided by a 2-1 vote of the board, followed a presentation of an investigation by the secretary of state’s office into problems in Fulton County during the June 9 primary. The allegations include polling places opening late, inadequate training of poll workers and failing to provide necessary Election Day forms to polling places.

The referral comes a week after the board referred the results of an investigation into the county’s handling of absentee ballots during the primary to the attorney general. That investigation concluded that the county had failed to process some absentee ballot applications and send requested ballots to voters.

Amanda Clark Palmer, an attorney for Fulton County, said county election officials acknowledge that there were problems, many of them caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But she said the county has taken substantive steps since then to make sure those aren’t repeated.

“This board should vote to close and dismiss the matter, rather than taking any other action,” Clark Palmer told the board. “And to be fair and just, you should also thank the hard work of the Fulton County elections board and their staff.”

Long and slow- moving lines — with some voters waiting up to six hours — resulted from too many voters being assigned to the same polling place and insufficient poll worker training, among other issues, secretary of state’s office investigator Frances Watson told the board.