Georgia’s primary election was off to a rocky start on Tuesday morning as voters, primarily in the populous Atlanta area, have been met with long lines and delays.
Georgia’s primary election was off to a rocky start on Tuesday morning as voters, primarily in the populous Atlanta area, have been met with long lines and delays.
State election officials have blamed inexperienced election workers for the problems as well as safety issues related to the coronavirus, including the heightened use of absentee ballots, and have pushed back on suggestions that malfunctioning equipment is causing delays. Several voters with whom CNN has spoken, however, have said they were having difficulty using election machines.
Machines were reported down at multiple locations by voters, including at First Baptist Church in downtown Powder Springs in Cobb County. Voter Monica Hickman told CNN she was in line starting at about 6:45 a.m. and was finally able to vote about two hours later due to 10 machines being down.
„It was after 7:30 when we went inside the voting area only to be told the machines were down. We had to use provisional ballots. I filled it out and left it there,“ Hickman said. „When it’s time to vote, everything should work properly because we’re living in critical times and this is one of the ways our voices can be heard.“
Dan Upshaw was in line to vote at the Joseph McGhee Tennis Center in Atlanta starting at 8 a.m. because poll workers told him they only had one functioning voting machine.
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„We were told Fulton County was on site working on them,“ he told CNN. „Last official update was that there were three machines working, but voters are saying there are only two.“
When he spoke to CNN, he believed he had about 45 minutes longer to wait until he could vote.
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„Some voters are leaving early,“ he said.
Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting implementation manager, disputed in a statement released by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office that there were equipment issues.
