18 Cobb Absentee Ballots Never Counted In 2022 State Election

MARIETTA, GA — Cobb County officials say 18 absentee ballots in the 2022 state elections went uncounted and unprocessed though they say the ballots would not have changed the results in two elections.

County officials said Friday an internal review was conducted after it was determined that five absentee ballots for the May primary election and 13 absentee provisional ballots for the November general election were never opened and processed.

The issue with the ballots were brought to the attention of interim Board of Elections and Voter Registration Director Gerry Miller and board members.

Board of Elections and Registration Chairwoman Tori Silas said the unopened ballots would not have affected results in two state races.

“Even though this involves a small number of ballots, we take this issue very seriously,” Silas said in a news release. “We have made the Secretary of State’s office aware of our findings. Following the 2022 election cycle, we made process improvements, including procedures to track and log ballots when they are received by the office. The improvements are designed to catch and prevent mistakes such as these.”

Conflict plagued Cobb County in the 2022 election after two Mableton candidates were disqualified due to returned checks, and two investigations were launched into the county's handling of absentee ballots.

Elections officials were accused of not mailing out more than 1,000 absentee ballots to residents in the Nov. 8 general election. Then, some voters who were out of state at the time reported never receiving their ballots.

Lisa Cupid, chairwoman of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners, said at the time officials were assessing election processes.