The Secretary of State is investigating allegations that the cards containing the results of the May 24 Primary elections in Clayton County were improperly handled.
“We’ve opened an investigation based on a complaint that the memory cards weren’t properly secured,” the agency’s spokesperson Candice Broce told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Broce declined to give details about the probe saying “It’s an ongoing investigation at this time.”
Memory cards, which save voters’ votes, are inside the voting machines.
Clayton Elections Director Shauna Dozier said Tuesday she has not been contacted by the Secretary of State’s office.
“If there is some type of investigation, I can’t discuss it with you at this time,” said Dozier, a former Fulton County registration chief who was hired in March to replace the former director Annie Bright who retired in May 2015.
The Secretary of State stepped in after getting complaints from Clayton residents Ivan Pitts and Oscar Blalock.
Pitts and Blalock say the mishandling of the memory cards could have led to possible tampering of the election results. Pitts, who lives in Lovejoy, said he filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s office May 29, shortly after hearing that Clayton elections officials did not properly secure the memory cards.
“If they didn’t secure the memory cards, they could have made changes on the memory cards which contain voters’ votes and that could be considered fraud as far as I’m concerned,” Pitts said. “I’m glad the Secretary of State’s looking into this. If we can’t get any satisfaction in this (investigation), we may have to reach out to the U.S. Justice Department.”
Blalock, who ran unsuccessfully for the District 3 commission seat, said Tuesday he welcomes the investigation.
“If they tampered with the memory cards, it could be the election was manipulated. It’s suspicious at best,” said Blalock, a Jonesboro resident. Blalock garnered 6 percent of the votes in the primary.
One candidate who ran unsuccessfully for sheriff said he has questions about the election results and he plans to follow the state’s investigation closely.
The Clayton primary resulted in incumbents, for the most part, handily sweeping the election. Winning last month's primary is a definitive victory for the incumbents in the heavily Democratic county since there are no face-offs with Republican candidates in the fall. Five contests - the District 3 commissioner's seat, two House seats and two superior court judge races - ended in runoffs.
"I did expect a few more runoffs than we had and given the low voter turnout, the election results were really weird to me," said Clarence Cox III, the former head of security for the county school system who was one of four challengers against Sheriff Victor Hill. Hill won a third term in office.
“I thought it was odd that so many absentee ballots were cast when the turnout for the primaries were so low. A lot of what we were hearing in the streets were certainly different from the election results,” Cox added. “I’m disappointed if there were some improprieties. I’m sick of Clayton always being in the middle of some controversy. If it’s something that was deliberate or a mistake, it’s time for us to get it right in Clayton.”
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