County election offices swamped as voters pour in

The voter registration cards sit in bins and boxes in Gwinnett County’s election office. There are thousands of them.

Dozens of temporary employees type in the voter information. Outside, a line of early voters snakes into the parking lot.

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Kimberly Smith/ksmith@ajc.com

Temporary employee Erin Holland sorts absentee ballot requests and voter registration paperwork as employees at the Gwinnett County Office of Voter Registration and Elections in Lawrenceville.

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“We’re swamped,” said Lynn Ledford, director of Gwinnett County’s election office.

Election officials around the state are entering thousands of voter registration applications, mailing out thousands of absentee ballots and processing thousands of early voters — all at once.

The load isn’t likely to lighten up. Record-breaking numbers of Georgians are expected to vote on Nov. 4, potentially overwhelming polls. Election officials hope the early-voting rush continues so that doesn’t happen.

“I’ve been doing this 21 years and this is absolutely the most exciting time,” said Ledford. She’s never seen voters so “charged.”

DeKalb employees working 7 days a week

In DeKalb, about 30,000 voter registration applications sit in the office, waiting to be entered.

“We’ve received boxes and boxes and boxes of mail,” said Linda Latimore, director of voter registration and elections for DeKalb County. “We received 10,000 on Monday alone.”

Monday was the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 4 election.

Latimore’s team has worked until 10 p.m. every night this week. They will work all day Saturday and four hours Sunday “before church, or after church,” Latimore said. By Tuesday, she hopes to have input all outstanding applications into the state computer system.

Counties must enter all voter registration applications by Oct. 22 in order for the voter’s name to appear on the electronic “Express Poll” verification system at the polling place, said Matt Carrothers, spokesman for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. If a voter is entered after that date, their name will appear on a paper supplemental voter roll, he said.

“No voter will be turned away from the polls,” Carrothers said.

While there have been headlines in recent days about fake registrations from other states, elections officials in Cobb, Gwinnett and Dekalb say they have not encountered any voter registration fraud so far.

Cobb hiring 80 more workers

Cobb County expects to hire 80 temporary workers help handle the crush of registration applications and early voting.

Workers there wore reflective vests this week and directed the heavy flow of voters — ushering them in the door, over to a window to show their ID, around the corner to the voting machine, then out the back door.

In addition to their regular duties, county election offices this year have sent out hundreds of letters to voters questioning their citizenship and their right to vote in the upcoming election. The Secretary of State’s office sent memos in September directing them to do so.

The practice has come under fire from the U.S. Department of Justice and from voting rights groups. Cobb stopped the citizenship verification this week after learning of the Department of Justice inquiry.

When asked if verification of citizenship overburdened the office, Cobb elections director Sharon Dunn sighed and said, “It’s just one more thing to do.”

Gwinnett burning up the fax machines

In Gwinnett County, clerks are entering changes to voter registration cards — 18,954 such changes last week. That includes name changes, address changes and also contacting voters to ask if they really meant to write they were born in 2008. It seems to be a common error.

On Thursday Gwinnett received 5,000 faxes asking for absentee ballots. One of the fax machines burned out Friday, and Ledford had to buy a replacement.

Another five clerks work exclusively on duplicate voting applications. Gwinnett has received 10,000 duplicates so far and the number could double by election day, Ledford said. Sometimes voter registration drives sign someone up who is already registered, she said.

Ledford expects her office will continue to work 12-hour days, six days a week until Nov. 4. But she says they’re on track to finish their work by Oct. 22.

Workers do need one day off per week, though, Ledford said.

“We’re not doing anything on Sunday,” she said. “Everybody’s got to have a break or we’ll lose our minds.”