UPDATE: Eligible voters whose designated polling locations are Centennial High School or the Johns Creek Environmental Campus will have a few extra minutes to cast their ballots Tuesday due to the polling locations not opening on time.
Eligible voters can only vote on provisional paper ballots during the extended hours. All other polling locations will close at 7:00 p.m.
Centennial is open until 7:35 p.m. and the Johns Creek Environmental Campus is open until 7:55 p.m.
ORIGINAL STORY (published at 1:08 p.m.): After experiencing some issues on Tuesday, Fulton County officials are hoping to keep two polling precincts open later.
Richard Barron, the director of elections and registration for Fulton County, said they are trying to extend voting hours for Centennial High School in Roswell and the Johns Creek Environmental Campus.
The problem is, the judge that has to OK voting extension, Shawn Ellen LaGrua, is hearing a criminal case today.
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“We’re hoping she can squeeze us in at some point today,” Barron said.
The issue at Centennial High was that polling workers showed up late, so the folks who were there to vote early Tuesday morning didn’t get a chance to. At the Johns Creek Environmental Campus, express polls and computers were connected wrong and it took officials some time to diagnose the problem.
“An error message that we had never seen before popped up,” Barron said. “We’ve had a couple of problems, but most have been resolved by now.”
Earlier this morning, around 7:30 a.m., one machine that produced voter cards wasn’t working at the Milton Public Library.
The other problem for voters in Johns Creek and Roswell on this special election day is that they have to cast votes on two different ballots.
There is the federal election — to replace Tom Price’s seat in the 6th congressional district — but Roswell and Johns Creek also have local elections to fill city council seats.
Federal ballots had to be finalized 45 days ago, so Georgia residents who are out of town could vote, but the local ballots weren’t ready at that time.
“It has caused some voter confusion,” Barron said. “Voters in those areas have had to check in twice and we had to build a second database for the two different forms.”
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