Georgia Election Polls - The secretary of state’s office says more than 128,000 Georgians went to the polls Monday, a record for the first day of early voting in the state
Citizen Has Skywrote ATLANTA --
More than 128,000 Georgians went to the polls Monday, a record for the first
day of early voting in the state, according to the secretary of state's office.
The
high turnout surpassed the nearly 91,000 votes cast on the first day of early
voting in 2016 and left eager voters waiting in hours-long lines across the
state to cast their ballots. Election officials and advocacy groups have been
pushing people to vote early, either in person or by absentee ballot, in
anticipation of record turnout and concerns about coronavirus exposure.
But some would-be voters turned up
Monday only to find their county offices closed for the Columbus Day holiday.
Effingham County resident Tony Grimes told WTOC-TV he took the day off work to
vote and was frustrated to find the door locked at the county's main elections office.
“I
see in Chatham County where they’re having lines forming for them to go and
vote," he told the television station. "So, they’re voting right now,
and we aren’t able to.”
The
secretary of state’s office said it received no votes Monday from 49 of the
state’s 159 counties, but it wasn’t clear how many of those were closed for the
holiday, spokesman Walter Jones said.
People
can continue to Vote early in person through Oct. 30. While voters must vote at
their assigned polling place on Election Day, they can vote at any open polling
place in the county where they live during early voting.
In Fulton County, the state's most
populous county, close to 20,000 people voted in person on Monday, second only
to the last day of early voting in 2016, when about 26,000 voted, county elections
director Rick Barron told reporters.
Barron
encouraged people who have requested absentee ballots to go ahead and use
those, submitting them by mail or in a drop box, rather than choosing instead
to vote in person. When a person who's requested an absentee ballot shows up at
the polls it takes longer to process them because the absentee ballot must be
canceled, contributing to longer lines, Barron said.
By
Tuesday morning, about 1.6 million people had requested absentee ballots,
according to the secretary of state's office. Of those, nearly 474,000 had been
returned and accepted.
Long
lines formed again Tuesday in some places. At least two counties, Cobb and
Gwinnett in Atlanta's populous northern suburbs, have online wait time tracking
tools. Gwinnett's tracker showed an eight-hour wait around midday at the main
elections office and waits of one to two hours elsewhere. Cobb's tracker at one
point showed a wait of five hours at the county's main elections office.
After
photos and videos of long lines Monday circulated widely on social media, some
election integrity advocates and elected officials said it was evidence of
voter suppression and called on election officials to take steps to take
immediate action.
But
others urged patience.
“Election
officials have limited resources — especially during the pandemic,” Rick Hasen,
an election law professor at the University of California-Irvine, tweeted
Monday night. “Great enthusiasm on the first day of voting leading to long
lines does not necessarily mean there's a systemic problem. Let's give it a few
days.”
Georgia's
elections have drawn national scrutiny in recent years. That was renewed in
June when the state's primary election was marred by long lines caused by
equipment problems and high turnout, as well as coronavirus-related
consolidations of polling places and shortages of poll workers.
Concerns
about voter disenfranchisement have resulted in a flood of election-related
lawsuits seeking to have judges order changes.
A
federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed in August by Democrats that
asked him to order Georgia election officials to take steps to prevent long
lines at the polls on Election Day. U.S. District Judge Michael Brown wrote in
an order Tuesday that it appears election officials have taken steps to address
the issues that previously caused long lines.
“It
is possible, of course, these measures will ultimately prove insufficient and
long lines will still arise,” he wrote. “But that is not the point; no one,
including this Court, can guarantee short lines.”
Separately,
U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg late Monday declined to order Georgia polling
places to increase the number of emergency paper ballots they have on hand to
allow voting to continue if there are problems with electronic voting
equipment.
Determining
the precise details of election administration is the responsibility of state
and local election officials, Totenberg wrote.
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