Cobb County Adds Two Early Voting Locations In Response To Voter Access Concerns

• Moving the advance voting location from the Ward Recreation Center to the Ron Anderson Community Center in Powder Springs.
• They will add two additional locations during the third week of advance voting:
  • The Arts Place-Mountain View in Marietta, and;
  • The Smyrna Community Center in Smyrna.

The NAACP, ACLU, and others sent a letter to the county Monday, saying that the cuts would unevenly affect the county’s Black and Latinx residents because most of the closed early voting locations were in minority neighborhoods.

The letter stated that because people of color in Georgia are more likely to live below the poverty line and public transportation in Cobb is inadequate, reduced early voting will disproportionately affect these groups at a time when many have doubts about mail-in voting and do not feel safe voting on Election Day.

“As COVID-19 numbers continue to rise, advance voting will be extremely important for voters in the upcoming runoff election,” said Michael Pernick with the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund. “That is why it is so important to maximize availability of advance voting – add additional days, add additional hours, and keep all locations from the general election open to voters for the January 5 runoff.”

Cobb Election Director Janine Eveler said in a county election board hearing that her department had not intended to cut as many locations for the high-profile January runoff, but their “hands were sort of forced” due to a staffing shortage.

Each early voting site requires a manager and two assistant managers who, according to Eveler, were working six days a week 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. leading up to the November election. She said many are not willing to do that again.

“Basically some have quit, some have left us, and others have said I’m not doing that, and I’m not doing that around the holidays,” Eveler said.

Cobb is the only metro Atlanta county controlled by Republicans, but the county’s Board of Commissioners flipped Democratic in November and a majority of Cobb voters chose President-Elect Biden. Cobb County experienced long lines during the general election, and no other county has made as drastic cuts to early voting.

“I’m hearing that there is some tension there with getting people trained. I’m hearing that it’s hard, I’m hearing that people are tired, but that is everyone. Election administration work is very hard, and it’s also hard on voters,” said Aklima Khondoker, Georgia State Director for All Voting is Local. “I don’t think we need to focus on how difficult the job is, I think the focus must be on getting the job done.”

In a separate email sent to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last month, many of the same voting rights groups called on Raffensperger to take specific steps to improve voter access ahead of the January runoff. The recommendations include requiring counties to expand their early voting availability and to provide at least one ballot dropbox per 15,000 to 20,000 voters, among others.

According to Khondoker, there are 15 counties with no ballot drop boxes, where the county elections department is the only place to return an absentee ballot in person. She says a handful of medium-sized counties have just one drop box.

“Your fundamental right to vote cannot come at the cost of your health. Now more than ever it’s incumbent on the Secretary of State and on our local counties to ensure that voters can vote safely and equitably, no matter where they reside,” Khondoker said.

At the same time, while some are calling for expanded voter access, Republican lawmakers are promising to advance bills that they say would increase voter security by rolling back some of the voting measures used this year.

“I am looking forward to a good legislative session. We will have our election bill brought forward, it will be a major reform of our election processes,” Raffensperger said in a press conference following the certification of Georgia’s recount.

“As soon as we may constitutionally convene, we will reform our election laws to secure our electoral process by eliminating at-will absentee voting. We will require photo identification for absentee voting for cause, and we will crack down on ballot harvesting by outlawing drop boxes,” the Republican Senate majority caucus said in a press release issued Tuesday.

The press release states that these proposals come in response to the “millions of Georgians who have raised deep and heartfelt concerns that state law has been violated and our elections process abused,” despite no substantial evidence that mail-in or absentee voting was subject to widespread fraud.

Early voting for the twin Senate runoff elections begins Monday.