The last two presidential elections still loom large in Fulton County.
In 2012, the secretary of state fielded more than 100 complaints about irregularities at polling places, problems that resulted in $180,000 in fines for the county. Hours after the polls opened, workers were still printing voter lists and delivering them to precincts. Some residents were turned away because their names weren’t on the lists, while 9,575 voters were forced to cast provisional ballots.
Four years earlier, election officials were still counting absentee ballots 53 hours after the voting ended.
Come November, Fulton County hopes to excise those bad memories.
Officials are taking a number of steps now in the hopes of avoiding problems with provisional ballots and long lines. An expansion of early voting is key to a lot of the changes the county is championing.
In addition to opening two dozen early voting locations for 19 days beginning Monday, Fulton is adding what it calls outreach locations. These popup early voting sites will open for two days at Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Atlanta Metropolitan State College, as well as at nine county senior centers.
By expanding early voting, Fulton hopes to minimize long lines at election day. Richard Barron, the county’s director of elections and registration, also hopes an increase in early voting will help voters solve any issues that might arise.
After the 2008 and 2012 problems, Fulton took steps to better control its elections process, but some issues remained.
This spring, many residents ended up at the wrong polling precinct because they hadn't been notified the locations had changed. As many as 40,000 precinct cards were returned to Fulton County with addresses that appeared to be good, while about 850 were delivered to polling places instead of residents.
Residents taking part in early voting can go to any of the designated polling places in the county where they are registered. On Nov. 8, they can only vote at their assigned precinct. Officials say early voting will help them re-direct people who are attempting to vote in the wrong precincts in time for them to cast their ballots. The efforts, he hopes, will reduce the number of provisional ballots voters fill out Nov. 8.
“People are doing themselves a disservice if they try to vote provisionally rather than going to their polling location,” Barron said. “If you vote provisionally, even if your ballot is accepted, only a portion of your ballot counts” if you vote in the wrong location.
The county spent about $101,800 to send 294,169 mailers to the households of registered voters to let them know where to cast their ballots. But it didn’t go as smoothly as hoped. Some 23,000 mailers directed voters to the wrong precincts.
At earlyvoting.fultoncountyga.gov, residents will be able to find the estimated wait times at lines in voting locations, to better plan. The county's goal is to have waits of 20 minutes or under.
And on election day, when lines tend to be longer, the county has rented tablet computers for $20,000 and will have people walking the lines to ensure that voters are in the right place. That way, for instance,Georgia State students who aren’t registered in Fulton County will find out they can’t vote there before they get to the front of the line.
There are a lot of moving parts, Barron said, all aimed at reducing the number of provisional ballots and the length of lines on Nov. 8. If people vote early — his goal is half of voters — it will “make a huge difference in the execution of the election.”
“I think we’re well prepared for what’s coming,” Barron said. Still, given Fulton’s history, he said, “I would be lying if I said I’m not nervous.”
WHERE TO VOTE EARLY IN FULTON COUNTY
Fulton County has 19 early voting locations and 12 “voting outreach” popup locations.
The early voting locations are open Oct. 17 to Nov. 4, Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.
The voting outreach locations are each open for two days, at Fulton County colleges and senior centers. Most will be available from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. One, at the Helene S. Mills Senior Multi-Purpose facility in Atlanta, will be open normal early voting location hours.
To see the full list of early voting locations, go to http://bit.ly/2dnqv0r.
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