Equipment Delays, Confusion, No Hand Sanitizer: Ga. Voter Complaints Dominate Start Of Election Day

During the last day of early voting Friday, some Fulton County polls were forced to stay open past midnight as hundreds stood in line for up to three hours.

Fulton elections officials said they are adding more staff, tents and chairs for the primary.

Meanwhile, counties already dealing with poll closures and social-distancing lines are also tasked with processing a surge in paper ballots received by mail.

WABE’s Susanna Capelouto and Emil Moffatt woke up early to see how voters were coping with the changes.

Early on, Capelouto reported from the precinct in Old Fourth Ward’s Central Park Recreation Center. By 7 a.m., she said more than 100 people had lined up, many wearing masks and playing it safe by bringing their own chair.

8 a.m. Voting Report

Meanwhile, voter complaints started reaching WABE inboxes.

‘It Just Seems Like It’s A Mess Today’

Nikki Thomas arrived at the Little Five Points Community Center at 7:15 a.m., where she said the line was already wrapped from the front of the building to the back of the parking lot.

“Walking up, there was a poll worker who was explaining to people that the machines had been down,” she said.

“I stood there until 7:50, and then the line started to move.”

She said the voters were mostly wearing masks – but poll workers left a lot to be desired, not necessarily taking precautions to protect themselves, and voters, from COVID-19.

“No one was wearing gloves, there was no hand sanitizer,” Thomas said.

She said the voting machines were also extremely close together – and if wealthier neighborhoods like Inman Park and Little Five Points were having issues, imagine what could be happening elsewhere.

“It just seems like it’s a mess today,” she said.

“You have to cast your ballot on this really large touch screen that was definitely not sanitized between the person who touched it before me and myself.”

9 a.m. Voting Report

‘Really Poorly Organized’

Another voter, Heather Blank, said she experienced similar issues at the Johns Creek Environmental Campus, where she waited in line for two hours because workers said machines were down.

“They had the first 56 people fill out provisional ballots,” she wrote in an email.

After voting around 10:30 a.m., Blank updated WABE.

“The staff seemed confused, no one offered me sanitizer, no one cleaned the machines in between voters. Really poorly organized.”

‘It Just Shouldn’t Take This Long’

Grant Park resident Abbie Greene and a group of friends are fundraising to send water, doughnuts and pizza to people waiting in voting lines.

“I’m so impressed by the people who are waiting in line for hours and hours, but it just shouldn’t be happening,” she said.

Greene tried to vote early in Fulton County on Friday, but the line was too long. So on Election Day she got to her precinct 45 minutes before polls opened and ended up voting about 2 1/2 hours later.

She said poll workers seemed confused, and their calls to the county election office were going to voicemail.

For some voters, the iPads weren’t working, or their cards weren’t working.

Greene and her friends have raised thousands of dollars so far to deliver water and food to voters. She said Junior’s Pizza in Summerhill is donating the pizza at cost, and she plans to donate any leftover funds to Fair Fight, Stacy Abrams’ voting organization.

“You shouldn’t have to give up on your whole life in order to go vote,” Greene said. “It just shouldn’t take this long.”

‘This Is Not OK’

It took about two hours for Pittsburgh resident Ashlee Starr to vote at the Pittman Park Recreation Center.

After she arrived to vote Tuesday morning, a poll worker told waiting voters that of the precinct’s three voting machines, only one was working. Later, another poll worker told voters that there was no paper for the machines and recommended that they call a hotline.

Eventually, more machines – and paper – arrived. But even then, Starr said voters seemed confused if their ballots were being cast normally or if they were being given provisional ballots.

“This is not OK that we’re making it so complicated that people want to give up,” she said. “I’m just really angry, because there are people who cannot wait that long. It should not be this hard to vote.”

Starr said this precinct had long lines in 2018, too, and that she and her husband waited four hours that time, “so it’s not like they couldn’t have known, we need more machines.”

‘Should Be A More Efficient Way’

Jeremy Mador, who lives in Atlanta, waited for over an hour at his polling place at Briar Vista Elementary School. He said he feels lucky he didn’t have to wait longer, after seeing stories of eight-hour waits for early voting.

“I know it’s complicated, and I don’t want to oversimplify things,” he said. “I do find it strange that it’s easier to vote for ‘American Idol’ than it is for elections in our own country. I feel like there should be a more efficient way, and I hope we get there.”

He said at his polling place, the six voting machines and printers all seemed to be working, but one of the machines used to check voters in kept malfunctioning, which delayed things.

“All in all though, I am glad this is just a primary and not the general. It would be pretty disheartening if things operated this way during the general,” he said. “I hope we can get things straightened out by then.”

Poll Workers ‘Realized There Was A Problem, They Did Their Best To Rectify It’

Shirley Hughes had to go to her Atlanta polling place twice on Election Day to cast her vote.

When she tried to submit her ballot on the voting machine, it said there was an error with the printer. A technician came to work on it but couldn’t get through to anyone over the phone to reset her ballot.

After about 20 minutes, poll workers told her to go home, saying they would let her know when she could come back to finish voting.

“It was a bit frustrating at the very beginning,” she said, “but when they realized there was a problem, they did their best to rectify it.”

Later in the morning, they called her back in. Her ballot had been printed, and she was able to scan it.

Hughes, who owns Sweet Cheats Bakery in Cabbagetown, brought gloves from the bakery with her when she went back to the polling place. She said she and her husband handed out hundreds of gloves to voters waiting in line and to poll workers, since almost no one had them.

‘I Feel Like It Should Be Easier Than It Is’

Dominic Maschler was three hours into his wait to vote at the Joseph D. McGhee Tennis Center in Atlanta’s Westview neighborhood when WABE talked with him.

He said when he first arrived, the machines weren’t working, and so many people had come to the wrong polling station that poll workers were separating them into a new line so they could cast provisional ballots.

He said social distancing made the line look extra long, but he had never seen turnout that high for a primary.

“In some ways, it’s hopeful to see this many people that are out here participating, but it’s definitely pretty frustrating to see how ineffective this current setup is and how many problems are occurring,” he said. “I feel like it should be easier than it is.”

Maschler followed up after he cast his ballot. He’d waited for nearly five hours. He said by the time he voted, most of the machines were working.

Officials Respond. A Call For Investigation

In a statement to WABE’s Moffatt, Georgia’s Voting Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling said there have been no reports of actual equipment issues.

“We do have reports of equipment being delivered to the wrong locations and delivered late. We have reports of poll workers not understanding setup or how to operate voting equipment,” Sterling wrote.

“While these are unfortunate, they are not issues of the equipment but a function of counties engaging in poor planning, limited training, and failures of leadership. Well over 2,000 precincts are functioning normally throughout the state of Georgia.”

In a statement, Georgia’s Speaker of the House David Ralston said he has directed Chairman Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, and the House Governmental Affairs Committee to investigate irregularities in Tuesday’s primary election — particularly in Fulton County.

“We are hearing anecdotes from around the state – particularly in Fulton County – this morning of unacceptable deficiencies: poll workers not being properly trained, voting equipment not working and absentee ballots not being received among other issues. Our poll workers give of their time to serve Georgians, and they do not deserve to be blamed for systemic problems beyond their control,” Ralston said.

Emil Moffatt and Molly Samuel contributed to this report. 

Engagement at WABE is powered, in part, by our collaboration with America Amplified, a Corporation for Public Broadcasting-funded initiative to use community engagement in our reporting.