Advance voting starts in Cobb, Gwinnett

Advance voting starts today at two metro Atlanta locations — one in Cobb and one in Gwinnett County. Other counties start offering advance voting on Monday.

• See locations below.

State and local election officials are encouraging voters to cast ballots early or by mail in hopes of managing the crowds expected at the polls Nov. 4.

Some county elections officials have predicted that turnout could top 90 percent. In August alone, more than 99,000 people registered to vote in Georgia and registrars expect many more to sign up before the Oct. 6 deadline.

“We’re going to have a whole bunch of people register to vote and they need to take advantage or absentee voting,” said Linda Latimore, head of elections in DeKalb County.

If they don’t, and “all these people show up on election day, they’ll be in line from Nov. 4 to Dec. 25,” Latimore said. DeKalb County is training more than 3,000 poll workers to get ready.

“All of us are nervous,” said Lynne Ledford, who runs Gwinnett’s elections office. “We do everything we can to make sure people do vote.”

When you can vote

In most of the state, advance voting starts Monday, 45 days before election day. However, Gwinnett and Cobb counties will allow voting starting today.

Advance voting ends the Friday before election day.

Fulton has three locations while Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett are allowing advance voting at their main offices.

Those who are not registered to vote can register through Oct. 6.

This year, voters can cast “absentee” ballots in person, without providing a reason. For those mailing them, absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on election day.

As local registrars get ready for voters, a new report suggests Georgia may not be prepared for the crowds expected at the polls in November.

The nonpartisan good-government group Common Cause said Georgia was among the least prepared states it studied and warned of long lines, confusion, and the possibility that some voters will be denied ballots.

Common Cause and the Century Foundation looked at voter registration and identification, provisional ballots, voting machine allocation and poll worker recruitment and training in 10 “swing states.” Researchers also described Florida and Virginia as among the “most problematic” of the states studied. Wisconsin received high marks.

“The excitement of this presidential campaign is expected to generate record-breaking turnout,” said Common Cause President Bob Edgar. “The bad news … is the voting infrastructure may not be equipped to handle that kind of pressure.”

Spokesman Matt Carrothers said Secretary of State Karen Handel, “disagrees with a number of the conclusions [in the report], which appear to be based purely on subjective criteria that Common Causes supports.” Common Cause is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s voter ID law.

Carrothers said the office would limit its reaction to the report until it has finished reviewing it. Common Cause said drafts of the report were sent to each state several months ago for their comments and suggestions.

To prevent problems on election day, Common Cause recommended that:

• Precincts be supplied with far more provisional ballots than usual and poll workers be given more training. Many of the potential problems identified in the report involved paper provisional ballots, which are counted only if the voter resolves within 48 hours any problems with registration or failing to have picture ID issues.

“We have a hard enough time getting voters to show up at the polls once,” said Tova Wang, Common Cause’s vice president for research. “It’s just more hoops and hurdles to have them come back.”

• More electronic voting machines should be set up at each precinct. Though Georgia law requires one machine for every 250 voters assigned to each polling place, the report predicted that standard may be inadequate for this general election if the expected flood of voters come.

• More recruitment and training of poll workers. “Attracting a sufficient number of poll workers continues to be one of the biggest problems confronting our system, ” the report said.

Absentee voting will start Friday in some counties and will continue at limited sites and for limited hours until October 27, when counties will open more sites for longer hours. Check with your local registrar’s office for more information.

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Absentee voting locations in metro Atlanta include:

Cobb County

Monday-Friday

8 a.m.-5 p.m.

736 Whitlock Ave.

Marietta

(770) 528-2581

DeKalb County

Monday-Friday

8 a.m.-7 p.m.

4380 Memorial Drive, suite 300

Decatur

404-298-4020

Fulton County

Monday-Friday

8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

141 Pryor St. SW

Atlanta

5600 Stonewalltel Road

Atlanta

or

7741 Roswell Road

Atlanta

404-612-7020

Gwinnett County

Monday-Friday

9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

455 Grayson Highway, Suite 200