Fulton County Elections Dept. Responds to Precinct Ballot Mix-up

Richard Barron is the Director of Registration and Elections for Fulton County. He says that it’s the voter’s responsibility to know that the ballot they have been given is correct.

“We have signs that say if you feel you have the incorrect ballot, you need to let a poll worker know, at that point they could have voted a provisional ballot precinct”.

Barron says votes made on the wrong ballot will still count even though people weren’t voting for their assigned district.

“If you were in 2-I you would have been given a 5-P ballot and your vote unfortunately went to 5-P”.

Barron says it remains unclear how many people were affected by the error and that voting system testing leading up to the election was flawless.

“What I’m hesitating to do is point fingers. We’re working with what I would call our partners in this and we want to continue to have a good relationship and make sure this doesn’t happen in the future”.

The department would not say what if any steps will be taken to amend votes that were cast incorrectly.

Update 7:15 p.m.

At 6:30 p.m. the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections issued an FAQ about the election process which included an explanation of what happened in the Candler Park voting district.  The following is an excerpt:

Fulton County Registration & Elections

Election Day Update (As of 6:30 p.m.)

Fulton County is conducting General and Special Municipal Elections today for several Fulton County municipalities. Polls will remain open until 7 p.m. in all locations except the city of Atlanta, which will remain open until 8 p.m.

The following update addresses issues and frequent questions from the media related to today’s election.

What issues have occurred during today’s election?

Out of 283 precincts open today, one precinct opened late.  Precinct 06R, located at First Presbyterian Church, 1328 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, opened 28 minutes late.  The Fulton County Superior Court has issued a ruling allowing this precinct to remain open until 8:28 p.m.

An additional issue affected Atlanta precincts 02H and 02I at Epworth United Methodist Church on McClendon Avenue. Voters in precinct 02I in this precinct were incorrectly assigned the ballot for precinct 05P.

What was the cause of the issue at Precincts 02H/02I?

This afternoon, Secretary of State Brian Kemp acknowledged that the issue was the result of human data entry error that originated in the Secretary of State’s office.  This issue did not arise during the extensive logic and accuracy testing performed by the Fulton County Department of Registration & Elections prior to the election. 

How many voters were affected? What solution has been provided?

The problem was identified at approximately 8:10 a.m. Approximately 130 voters had cast ballots prior to that time. Not all of voters at this location were affected by the issue. We do not know precisely how many voters may have been affected at this time.

After the problem was identified, poll workers began issuing provisional ballots to those voters who would have been issued incorrect ballots by the express poll machines.  All of those provisional ballots will be counted as provided by law.  By noon a solution was identified to allowed all voters at this precinct to vote on the correct ballot using touch screen units instead of provisional ballots.

What should voters do if they feel they were assigned the incorrect ballot?

Any voter who feels they have an incorrect ballot should notify a poll worker immediately before casting their ballot.