DEL.ICIO.USVoting lines get longer in metro Atlanta
More polling places to open next week
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Voters in Cobb County stood outdoors in line for two hours to cast ballots Tuesday. One elderly woman collapsed in the sun in the early afternoon. Other voters made it through line with the help of books, magazines, Cokes, and red Twizzlers.
The woman who fainted was more embarrassed than sick, and she was tended to by paramedics before she was ushered into the polling station.
Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com
Voters wait outside the door of the Cobb County Board of Elections & Registration office at the West Park Government Center on Tuesday. They waited abou 2 1/2 hours to cast their early ballots.
“That’s a very dramatic way to get to the head of the line,” joked Beth Kish, Cobb County’s registration manager, who encouraged voters to bring collapsible chairs, water, books, umbrellas and more to survive the wait.
Lines for early balloting were long all over metro-Atlanta Tuesday as the volume of voters in the upcoming presidential election continued to rise. On Monday alone, 66,159 people voted early in Georgia. That’s more than double last Monday’s figure.
Elections officials expect the volume to keep growing as Election Day approaches. Counties plan to open more polling locations on Monday as voting switches from “no fault” absentee balloting to full-on “advanced” voting.
About 13 percent of registered voters — or 757,666 people — have cast ballots in Georgia so far.
At the Fulton County government center in downtown Atlanta, voters were calm and comfortable in upholstered seats in the air-conditioned Fulton County Commission chamber. They waited an hour and 40 minutes to be escorted, row by row, to the voting machines.
Many feared longer lines on Election Day. Others were simply eager to cast their vote and avoid last minute glitches.
“I don’t want to miss out by no means,” said the Rev. Mack Simmons, 68, of Welcome All Missionary Baptist Church in Bolton.
“We have lost credibility in the world. We are suffering the consequences of that,” Simmons said. “That has caused us to lose confidence and that is reflected on Wall Street,” he said. Simmons said his “heavy persuasion” is to vote for Obama.
Ali Samadi, 30, a U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan, had never voted before.
He voted early not because he worried about lines, but because he had made up his mind.
For the first time “there is a candidate I truly believe in,” Samadi said of Obama.
In Gwinnett hundreds stood in line for more than an hour at the elections office in Lawrenceville.
Julie Johnson, 23, wanted to vote early to avoid the lines on Election Day and “get it out of the way.”
Johnson, who also voted in 2004, said this election is significant “because I think it’s important that we get the right person in office so we get our economy going.”
She voted for McCain.
In Cobb slightly more than 1,500 people waited in line Monday; officials there expected a similar turnout Tuesday.
Turnout was about the same in Fulton, having doubled from last week.
Cobb officials said they have fit as many voting machines as possible into their offices.
“We thank our voting public for being so patient,” said county spokesman Robert Quigley.
“More people came out to take advantage of absentee voting than we had anticipated,” Quigley said. “When you combine that with a super high profile presidential race, you’re going to have huge turnouts.”
Cobb cannot open another polling location because it would not follow its original absentee voting plan submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice for pre-approval, Quigley said.
Ray Skiba gladly withstood the delay in Cobb. This election, he said, is too important not to vote.
“It’s the most dangerous time of our nation since I was in high school and began following politics, when Eisenhower was elected,” said Skiba, 64, of Mableton. “I think Obama is bad for the country. I don’t like any of his issues as far as taxes, spending and defense. [But] I don’t like the Republican candidate either,” he said. He voted for McCain.
Karen Correll, 39, shared Skiba’s ambivalence about McCain who she nonetheless voted for.
“I consider myself middle class and I can see how the economy effects my class as well as people with lower incomes,” said Correll, of Kennesaw, who is in middle-management with a telephone company. “But I think McCain can do best. I trust him more than his opponent.”
More places to vote
Additional voting locations will be opening Oct. 27 in metro counties, including Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett. See full list of locations, hours and phone numbers (PDF).
Staff writers Shane Blatt and Dan Chapman contributed to this report.
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