A request from the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration to mail absentee ballot applications to registered voters doesn’t have enough support to be considered by county commissioners.
The board last month approved a request to spend $221,000 to mail the applications before the Nov. 3 election. Cobb has about 518,300 active voters, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.
The Board of Elections is independent, but relies on the county government to fund its operations.
Cobb County commissioners were supposed to take up the board’s request at Tuesday’s meeting, but a majority were not in favor of the proposal.
“We did not have three ‘yes’ votes, so there was no point in bringing it forward,” said Cobb Elections and Registration Director Janine Eveler.
Commissioner Bob Ott, one of the three commissioners opposed to the request, said the proposal was discussed during an agenda preparation meeting attended by the board chair and vice chair of the commission. Before something is placed on the agenda, the chair would “get a feel” whether an item has enough support to pass a formal vote, Ott said.
In this case, Ott said he and two other commissioners were against it. Ott said he believes the request would be confusing to voters.
For example, the Elections Office in the spring mailed absentee ballot request forms to voters over 60 so they could vote without worrying about COVID-19 exposure. A day after Cobb announced its decision, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said it would mail absentee ballot request forms to Georgia’s 6.9 million registered voters.
Ott said the county received calls and emails from people who were asking why they received two forms. He also said the process to obtain an absentee ballot is convenient, as residents can contact the Elections Office or visit their local library.
“The reality is that it’s just not that hard to get an absentee ballot,” he said. “This is not a party thing. It’s about the confusion that I saw and that it is not that hard to get a ballot.”
Commissioner Lisa Cupid, who said she supported the Elections Board’s request, said the proposal should have been brought up for discussion during a public meeting. She said it’s not protocol for a request for funding submitted by a county agency to be rejected before it’s placed on a Board of Commissioners agenda.
“If that were the case, we would be impeding county business,” she said.
Voters in Cobb and around the state will have an easier way to obtain absentee ballots due to a rule approved Monday by the state Elections Board.
Registered voters will be allowed to go online and submit absentee ballot requests for the November presidential election. The absentee ballot application website, which is expected to go live by the end of next week, will help voters cast ballots in the election without having to visit a precinct during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Mark Niesse contributed to this report.
