Fulton’s FedEx bill for absentee ballots: $327,025

Fulton County may have to pay more than $300,000 for sending absentee ballots by overnight delivery after getting behind in processing applications for the election.

In an Oct. 31 letter, Secretary of State Karen Handel ordered the county elections office to deliver the ballots overnight when she saw a backlog of applications.

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CURTIS COMPTON / ccompton@ajc.com

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel ordered the Fulton County elections office to deliver absentee ballots overnight when she saw a backlog of applications.

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Fulton County hired Federal Express, which delivered about 4,000 ballots, according to a FedEx employee who asked that their name not be used. The lowest cost per delivery was about $25, according to invoices obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act, but some individual deliveries made to Georgia addresses the Sunday before the election cost as much as $355. The total bill is $327,025.59, but Fulton County is trying to negotiate the cost downward.

“Good God!” elections board member Harry MacDougald said Wednesday upon hearing the total. “We’re very unhappy that we incurred that expense.”

The cost included prepaid return envelopes.

MacDougald said he didn’t know if any of those ballots were counted for the Nov. 4 election, but the county is trying to find out.

Jennifer Pridgeon, a University of Georgia law school student from Sandy Springs, said she never received her ballot. She had to drive from Athens to vote on a provisional ballot. FedEx initially charged Fulton $355.28 to leave the ballot at her front door.

“It seems ridiculous,” Pridgeon said. “I’m still not sure [my vote] counted. It should be all or nothing. Either you mail you ballot in and get it back, or they tell you you’re not getting it.”

MacDougald said the county was in the process of negotiating the price with the Memphis-based air and ground delivery company. The cost of sending the ballot to Pridgeon was reduced to $144, according to FedEx.

Handel’s Oct. 31 letter accused Fulton County voter registration officials of failing to process absentee ballot requests and send out ballots in a timely manner.

“Approximately 100 [ballot applications] have been in your office for at least 10 days,” she said in the letter addressed to county interim elections director April Pye.

The situation got worse.

County election officials came under fire after the election for sending workers home before all the ballots were counted, and again for taking nearly three days to count the absentee ballots.

The secretary of state’s office is still unhappy.

“It is unfortunate and outrageous that Fulton County taxpayers have to pay for the incompetence of the Fulton County elections staff,” Handel spokesman Matt Carrothers said Wednesday. He noted that no other counties had this problem.

Maxine Daniels, DeKalb County Voter Registration and Elections assistant director, said Wednesday her department didn’t pay to have any absentee ballots delivered overnight to voters.

MacDougald acknowledged that mistakes were made, but noted the elections office was overwhelmed with higher-than-normal voter registration and early voter turnout.

Still, he said, the FedEx expense was too much.

“Ideally, we wouldn’t have to have spent any money on FedEx,” he said. “We’re going to structure our operations so that we never have to have this situation again.”