Voters encountered long lines and problems with voting machines on Tuesday during a chaotic day of in-person balloting in Georgia, the latest state to struggle to conduct elections amid the health worries of the coronavirus pandemic.
Voters encountered long lines and problems with voting machines on Tuesday during a chaotic day of in-person balloting in Georgia, the latest state to struggle to conduct elections amid the health worries of the coronavirus pandemic.
State Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for the problems, and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office would investigate issues in at least two counties that are Democratic strongholds in an effort to resolve them before the November election.
The problems in Georgia, which delayed its primary from March, were a sign of the election difficulties created by the coronavirus outbreak and are likely to raise alarms about how well states will handle the Nov. 3 clash between Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
Many voters in the Atlanta area complained of hours-long waits and voting machines that were not operating. Raffensperger said the problems were most acute in metropolitan Atlanta’s Fulton and DeKalb counties, although the Georgia Democratic Party said it received reports of problems “in every corner of the state.”
The primary was the first use of Georgia’s new voting equipment, which added a paper ballot backup, and officials said there were reports some locations struggled to start the machines, did not receive the equipment necessary to start on time or did not train poll workers properly on handling them.
