GA Primary Election Fallout: What Went Wrong?

GEORGIA — Start with an election staged during a pandemic, which limited polling places and discouraged poll workers from volunteering. Add to that newly purchased voting machines that required unique training and preparation. Finally, top it off with nationwide protests against police brutality targeting blacks, which fueled voter interest in one of America’s largest cities and a record number of absentee ballots.

What could possibly go wrong? As it turned out, almost everything went wrong.

By Wednesday morning, all votes had yet to be counted in Georgia’s primary election held Tuesday, with many races still undecided. What’s more, the difficulties many voters encountered — mostly in the Atlanta area — had drawn criticism and calls to action both locally and nationwide.

Long lines and problems with Georgia’s new touchscreen voting machines became apparent Tuesday morning. By midday, two Republicans — Georgia House Speaker David Ralston and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — announced investigations aimed primarily at Fulton and DeKalb counties in metro Atlanta, both controlled by Democrats.

In a statement, Raffensperger blamed Fulton and DeKalb’s problems on “poor planning, limited training and failures of leadership.” Nearby Gwinnett and Cobb counties experienced similar problems but weren’t mentioned. Both are largely managed by Republicans.

Democrats pushed back. DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond laid blame at Raffensperger’s feet and called for an investigation of the Secretary of State’s office. Cheri Bustos, chairperson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was also critical.

“The Georgia Secretary of State had months to get it right, even after today’s election was delayed twice. Instead, Secretary of State Raffensperger and Georgia Republicans have failed their constituents by refusing to provide Georgia counties with the resources and training they need to conduct this election,” Bustos said in a statement. “This is not how our American democracy should look.”

Georgia State Rep. Derrick Jackson (D-64) went live throughout the primary election day on Facebook updating about the long wait times. At 12:30 a.m. he said there were people who had been waiting for six hours and longer to vote.

“We’re going to continue to fight the fight. This will not happen in November so secretary of state, Gov. Kemp, y’all have to get this together because we’re not going to have this in November,” Jackson said. “Gov. Kemp you get an ‘F,’ secretary of state, you get an ‘F.’ This was unsatisfactory. Georgians deserve better...makes no sense at all for citizens to be out here at 12:30 a.m. to vote. It’s their right, it’s their civic duty to vote.”

With the smoke yet to clear and votes still not counted, others weighed in. Democratic vice presidential hopeful Stacey Abrams, who blamed the “complete meltdown” on Raffensperger, told CBS This Morning on Wednesday that her own absentee ballot might have been compromised because it came with a return-mail envelope that had already been sealed shut. Instead, Abrams waited in line to vote.

“Georgia has seen this before,” Abrams said. “Yesterday was, I think, one of the most egregious examples. It didn’t just happen in Democratic strongholds, it happened across the state. Voter suppression hits everyone, including Republican districts.”

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “hundreds of thousands of last-minute absentee ballots” were still being scanned Wednesday. By noon Wednesday, it was unclear when they would finish.

Matthew Sease said he arrived at Cedar Grove Elementary School close to 6:30 a.m. and immediately experienced problems, including long lines that he said wrapped around the building. It took more than an hour to get through the doors.

“It started out really, really bad,” he told Patch, "and I'm not blaming the people because they were very nice, but they were operating on a machine that they never operated before, and it had a malfunction.”

While waiting, Sease said he began letting the seniors in line get in front of him. As more showed up, he decided to take their phone number, give them a number to hold their place in line and sent them to their vehicles to wait. After his turn he came back and let everyone know what’s expected of them once they get inside.

He also left for the store and brought back bottles of water to pass out. “I just wanted people to vote, to stick around,” he said.

This story includes reporting from Patch Editor Andrea Watson.