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State election officials have blamed inexperienced election workers for the problems as well as safety issues related to the coronavirus, including the heightened use of absentee ballots, and have pushed back on suggestions that malfunctioning equipment is causing delays. Several voters with whom CNN has spoken, however, have said they were having difficulty using election machines.
Machines were reported down at multiple locations by voters, including at First Baptist Church in downtown Powder Springs in Cobb County. Voter Monica Hickman told CNN she was in line starting at about 6:45 a.m. and was finally able to vote about two hours later due to 10 machines being down.
“It was after 7:30 when we went inside the voting area only to be told the machines were down. We had to use provisional ballots. I filled it out and left it there,” Hickman said. “When it’s time to vote, everything should work properly because we’re living in critical times and this is one of the ways our voices can be heard.”
Dan Upshaw was in line to vote at the Joseph McGhee Tennis Center in Atlanta starting at 8 a.m. because poll workers told him they only had one functioning voting machine.
“We were told Fulton County was on site working on them,” he told CNN. “Last official update was that there were three machines working, but voters are saying there are only two.”
When he spoke to CNN, he believed he had about 45 minutes longer to wait until he could vote.
“Some voters are leaving early,” he said.
Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting implementation manager, disputed in a statement released by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office that there were equipment issues.
“We have reports of poll workers not understanding setup or how to operate voting equipment. 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,” Sterling said.
Robb Pitts, the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, told CNN some issues are due to staffing shortages as poll workers have declined to participate due to the coronavirus.
“We had a problem where seven people who would normally work at the polls, six of them decided they didn’t want to work because of the virus, so we had to scramble at the last minute to find new workers,” he said.
He also suggested that “there’s a lot of technology involved now and a lot of our poll workers have typically been retired people and the technology can be a challenge sometime.”
Raffensperger has repeatedly said that the pandemic was going to slow down the voting process, noting that in addition to delays due to social distancing and disinfecting practices, the state has fewer poll workers to man precincts due to concerns over the pandemic.
“With our health protocols, we are guaranteed to see lines tomorrow. That is why I have spent so much time trying to get voters to vote absentee,” Raffensperger said Monday.
He noted that lines will look longer as social distancing is enforced, but also cautioned the lines will be moving more slowly due to fewer people being allowed in each room and the time needed to disinfect between each use of a machine.
In addition, voters have been asked to use a stylus, rather than their fingers, to operate the touchscreens. There are also fewer polling places in many counties. Some areas will see “mega polling sites” with more than 10,000 voters assigned to the site.
A source in the secretary of state’s office conceded that some counties in the state are straining under the volume of absentee ballots that have been received so far. Fewer than 40,000 people typically vote by absentee ballot in Georgia, but already, the state has received more than 1.2 million absentee ballots, a primary participation record, Raffensperger has said. Of those ballots cast, 951,970 were mail-in ballots, according to numbers provided by his office.
Ninety-six percent of ballots that were requested had been recorded as delivered to voters as of last week, the secretary of state’s office said.
Meanwhile, CNN Weather’s Brandon Miller says voters in the greater Atlanta metro area are facing some weather conditions that will make standing in long voting lines uncomfortable. Although temperatures will only be in the mid-80s, humidity around 80-90% will make it feel much warmer — over 90 degrees. Even less helpful to voters, much of the metro area will be at risk for thunderstorms starting in the afternoon.
In a change from years past, Georgia will not be releasing results until all of the precincts are closed, meaning it will likely be later Tuesday night before results start coming in. Absentee mail-in ballots must be received by county elections offices by 7 p.m. ET Tuesday.
CNN’s Kelly Mena, Abby Phillip and Drew Kann contributed to this report.
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