DeKalb County To Use Paper Ballots At Some Polling Locations

November 1st, 2017

On Tuesday, Atlanta polls will close at 8 p.m. DeKalb County voting ends at 7 p.m. Atlanta polling locations in DeKalb County will switch to paper ballots for the last hour of voting Tuesday. This way DeKalb can make sure all of its ballots close simultaneously.

Andrew Harnik / Associated Press file

Some DeKalb County voters will cast their ballots on paper next week instead of on machines.

The city of Atlanta’s elections and DeKalb County’s special-purpose local-option sales tax, SPLOST, vote are on the same day.

So polling locations in the small part of Atlanta that’s in DeKalb will have both city and county ballots. But polling hours for the city and county are different by state law. If you’re in Atlanta, polls will close at 8 p.m. If you’re in the rest of DeKalb County, 7 p.m.

DeKalb’s director of voter registration and elections, Erica Hamilton, said to keep the playing field even, if you will, the Atlanta polling locations in DeKalb will switch to paper ballots for the last hour of voting Tuesday. This way DeKalb can make sure all of its ballots close simultaneously.

“We have trained our poll workers, and we do have procedures in place to ensure that it’s a smooth transition,” Hamilton said. She added the SPLOST question will still be on the paper ballots, but even if a vote is cast, it won’t count.

DeKalb will have poll workers at the Atlanta locations dedicated to explaining the procedure to voters.