Early voters will start hitting the polls Monday, and Fulton County officials have yet to bring in the outside experts that were supposed to help smooth out their troubled elections operations.
Registration and Elections Board members have cited hiring consultants as one of many steps being taken to restore public confidence in the county’s ability to run polls and count votes. Thursday, the board considered applications during a closed session but made no hires.
That means that whoever comes in, costing as much as $20,000, will begin late in the process. Some observers are getting antsy, fearing a repeat of the error-plagued July primary or the troubled processing of absentee votes for the presidential election in 2008.
“I guess we just have to pray that everything is in line,” north Fulton Commissioner Liz Hausmann said. “At this point, I don’t even know what a consultant would do.”
The department is under scrutiny after partly botching the redistricting process and assigning hundreds of voters to the wrong state House and Senate races in July. Then Sam Westmoreland resigned last month as the county’s elections director after landing in jail for violating sentencing terms from DUI arrests in 2008 and 2009 related to prescription drugs.
It was Westmoreland who raised the idea of bringing in outside help in August as part of an apology to commissioners for the problems during the primary. Commissioners responded by scolding him for more than an hour.
Commissioner Robb Pitts is still closely watching the elections preparations and admitted being surprised that the consultants have yet to be hired.
“I want to have all hands on deck,” he said.
Trying to assure the public that the polls will be in competent hands, interim Elections Director Sharon Mitchell has been holding community meetings. A spokesman for Secretary of State Brian Kemp, whose office has multiple open investigations involving Fulton, said he would consider an outside monitor “should the need arise.”
Steps are also being taken to avoid the problems of 2008, when slow absentee ballot processing had workers in a warehouse counting for 53 hours, with crews twice going home in exhaustion and mishandling thousands of ballots in violation of state election rules. The problems resulted in a $120,000 penalty, believed to be the largest ever levied by the State Election Board.
This time, a second shift of workers will be brought in on election night to count absentee ballots, Mitchell said.
“We think we’re a better department,” she said. “We’ve learned a lot from our mistakes.”
Elections board members said they’re working as fast as they can on the consultants, but they could give no time frame on when the hiring process will be finished.
After Westmoreland resigned 2 1/2 weeks ago, board members decided to bring in consultants to help Mitchell.
The county advertised the job last weekend, and the three elections board members who attended Thursday spent about 45 minutes in closed session looking over a pool of 15 applicants. Stan Matarazzo, a Republican Party appointee to the board, said at least some of the candidates need to be interviewed, which should start next week.
With time too short to launch a bid process, County Manager Zachary Williams authorized the hiring of three consultants as temporary workers at a range of $27 to $42 per hour. The price would range from about $15,000 to $20,000.
Board members have said the cost would be offset by vacant positions, including Westmoreland's $105,000 salary.
Hausmann questions not only whether any high-caliber consultants will work for $42 per hour, but whether they’re still available so close to Election Day, and whether they can come up to speed quick enough.
“There’s always that when a consultant comes in,” Matarazzo said. “That’s why you’ve got to pick someone who’s ready to hit the ground running.”
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