Extension Granted For Cobb Voters Who Never Received Absentee Ballots

MARIETTA , GA — An extension has been given for hundreds of affected Cobb County absentee ballots that were never mailed to be received past the 7 p.m. Tuesday deadline, according to a consent order signed Monday afternoon by Cobb County Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill.

Under the order, the absentee ballots that were not mailed in Cobb County must be postmarked by 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8. The deadline for them to be received is Nov. 14.

The regular deadline in Georgia for absentee ballots to be received is 7 p.m. on Election Day.

More than a thousand Cobb County residents did not receive their absentee ballots after elections officials failed to mail them ahead of Election Day, county officials said Saturday.

Absentee ballot requests that were affected were dated Oct. 13 and Oct. 22. They were from voters throughout the county and Georgia voters currently out of state.

Janine Eveler, director of elections and registrations, said during a news conference Monday the error was made by one staffer who has been emotional since the mistake was discovered.

Eveler said normal operations are to gather a daily list of voters and mailing addresses collected in the state registration system on a flash drive. A person is then supposed to download the flash drive into a mailing machine that will prepare the mailed ballots.

Eveler said the supervisor had the flash drive but did not run the two lists through the mailing machine.

"So, the ballots appeared to be issued because they were marked in the system as issued; but, the final step of actually running them through the machine did not happen," she said. "So, the ballots were never packaged up and sent. So, it was actually completely human error."

Staff members have been working through the weekend to get the ballots out to people, officials said, adding they have been contacting impacted voters by email or phone.

Tori Silas, elections board chair, said 83 absentee ballots with an Oct. 13 issue date were overnighted to out-of-state addresses over the weekend.

As for those with an Oct. 22 issue date, Silas said 164 ballots were overnighted and 37 of those were sent out of state with 127 sent to in-state addresses.

Prepaid overnight return envelopes were included for the ballots sent out of state.

Daniel White, attorney for the elections board, said some of the impacted voters chose to cancel their absentee ballots after not getting them and chose to instead vote early in-person.

As of early weekend, White said 716 people had not voted early in-person. As of Sunday evening, it was determined 469 people had not yet voted in-person.

That number has since dwindled down. As of Monday afternoon, the elections office still had 276 ballots to mail, Eveler said. The consent order mandated the remaining ballots be overnighted Monday with return envelopes.

Anyone not voting in-person or by replacement absentee ballots can vote by federal write-in absentee ballots, according to the order.

Channel 2 reported the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Sunday for the impacted voters.

The ACLU’s lawsuit requests absentee ballots be sent overnight to those voters who still need them. The lawsuit also requests the deadline to return the ballots be delayed until Monday, Nov. 14, which is the deadline for absentee voters overseas and in the military, Channel 2 reported.

White said the elections office began working over the weekend to solve the problem.

Eveler said on Election Day, a two-party transport system will be in place to ensure ballots get to their destination.

Though the elections office has been understaffed, losing part of its leadership staff due to being overworked or facing too much pressure, Eveler ensures it will be fully-staffed Tuesday.

Since the 2020 elections, 38 percent of the Cobb elections office is new to elections, to the county or to their positions.

"So, I have a very young staff in tenure, and they are learning; and so, that has been part of the problem," Eveler said.

In a news release Saturday, Eveler said many members of the absentee staff have been working an average 80 hours or more per week and are exhausted.

"Following this election, I will join other members of the board of elections to oversee a review of the absentee ballot process and work with Ms. Eveler and her staff to improve the county’s absentee ballot process to reduce the likelihood of this type of error occurring in the future," Silas said in the release.

Ballots will be certified Nov. 15 in Cobb County.