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“If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed,” Bottoms tweeted Tuesday morning. “PLEASE stay in line. They should offer you a provisional ballot if the machines are not working.”
Bottoms’ plea preceded Georgia’s secretary of state and state House speaker calling later Tuesday for investigations into the voting delays in Atlanta and across Georgia. The state has faced voting issues due to the coronavirus pandemic this year, with Georgia’s primary having been postponed twice over health concerns regarding Covid-19 exposure, and the state mailing absentee ballot requests to the state’s 6.9 million registered voters.
Bottoms tweeted Tuesday morning after learning that several voting machines throughout the city of Atlanta and Fulton County were not working.
“Voters in line at Ralph Bunche precinct, one of the largest in Atlanta, say NONE of the machines are working. Please address this ASAP,” Bottoms tweeted, tagging Twitter accounts for Fulton County and several of its county commissioners. She noted that “lines are wrapped around buildings” in some locations, citing anecdotes of voters waiting in line for eight hours to vote.
“Let’s all work, hope and pray that this not be a preview of November,” she said.
State election officials blamed inexperienced election workers for the problems on Tuesday, as well as safety issues related to the coronavirus, including the heightened use of absentee ballots. They 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 and machines were reported down at multiple locations by voters.
Georgia is no stranger to controversies surrounding voting access. The 2018 election, in which Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp narrowly beat Democrat Stacey Abrams, was marred by claims of voter suppression that included ballots being rejected over the state’s “exact match” standard and voter registration issues for many African American voters.
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