Election officials across metro Atlanta reported being in good shape heading into the last full week before the July 31 primary, with only Fulton County acknowledging inaccuracies on voter precinct cards, and absentee and early-voting ballots.
Inaccuracies on precinct cards in Fulton appeared to affect more than 300 voters who had already cast their votes. The problem involved wrong precinct information printed on cards. "Due to database entry mistakes within the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections, voters on some streets were placed in the wrong districts," the department said in a statement Friday to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As a result, some Fulton voters received incorrect absentee or advance-voting ballots that omitted a race they should have voted in. The department said new "corrected" precinct cards have been printed and mailed.
Officials were also sending new ballots to voters who cast absentee ballots and have asked those who voted in-person to come back and vote in the additional race.
The mix-up came after Georgia lawmakers last year redrew a number of legislative districts in a process known as redistricting. Redistricting happens at least once every 10 years after the release of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The problems do not appear widespread, although voters are being reminded to double-check their cards. Individualized information, including polling places, also can be found on the "My Voter Page" tab of the Georgia secretary of state's website (www.sos.ga.gov).
Cobb County Elections Director Janine Eveler said some residents had questions about their locations changing, but that has not caused any issues.
"Some had questions about it because they weren't aware of the redistricting process," Eveler said.
Tom Sawyer, Fayette County's supervisor for the Board of Elections and Voter Registration, said the county didn't have any changes with redistricting, but he still encouraged anyone with questions to call the department.
"We are blessed because we had no changes," Sawyer said. "Residents should continue to go where they have always voted. If someone is questioning the information, we can certainly look it up. So far we have not had any issues, knock on wood."
Officials with Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties all said they have had no problems.
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