Fulton County elections officials have cast blame on poll managers for Tuesday’s nightmare with provisional ballots, saying some of them didn’t follow their training and made legitimately-registered voters use paper ballots.
But the problem actually started at the main office, which changed its method of delivering voter lists to precincts late in the process, confusing many poll workers, a discussion at Friday’s elections board meeting revealed.
On the Friday before the election, the main office still hadn’t keyed in about 6,000 voter registrations. The names were instead compiled over the weekend into paper lists, and precinct managers were supposed to let those voters use touch-screen machines.
Because of the backlog, the supplemental voter lists were longer and thicker than in past elections.
Under questioning from board member Stan Matarazzo, Elections Chief Dwight Brower said that supplemental lists weren’t delivered in their regular fashion this election. Instead of being given to poll managers in the same suitcase as the computer used to check in voters, they came in separate envelopes mixed in with other supplies.
“It appears that that’s the reason why we have so many provisional ballots,” Matarazzo said after the meeting. “Some of them didn’t know where the supplemental list was.”
Elections Interim Director Sharon Mitchell maintained that poll manangers had clear instructions.
“My understanding is when they picked the packages up,” she said, “they were instructed where the supplemental lists were.”
Whatever went wrong, elections board Chairman Roderick Edmond vowed Friday to get to the root of the problem and correct it.
“If it takes a full, clean sweep of that department in order for it to happen, then we’ll do it,” he said.
The board also decided Friday that pending provisional ballots won’t affect the outcome of the state Senate District 6 race, where Republican Hunter Hill is leading Democrat Doug Stoner by 4,049 votes. The elections department’s staff determined that only 486 provisional ballots were cast in that election in Fulton County.
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