A fire, late openings and false reports were just a few of the issues that plagued metro Atlanta voters.
Following a record 2.3 million early voter turnout, metro Atlantans now await the results of what may be a historic election. Polls closed at most precincts about 7 p.m., but some DeKalb and Gwinnett precincts were open for up to 30 minutes past the scheduled closing after multiple delays interrupted polling.
All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody stayed open until 7:30 p.m. The church closed briefly earlier after a small electrical fire caused voters to evacuate. Voting at Sweetwater Middle School in Lawrenceville closed at 7:12 p.m. due to a late opening.
Other Gwinnett voters had trouble finding their polling place or even went to the wrong one.
“Only real issue being reported now,” county spokesman Joe Sorenson wrote in an email Tuesday evening, “is that a large number of people are voting out of precinct, and rather than going to their home precincts, they are demanding to vote provisionally.”
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Provisional ballots must be checked manually, which slows the process at polls.
Fulton County voters saw a different issue: voting twice.
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The county’s director of registration and elections Richard Barron got several calls after a robocall went out to some early voters reminding them to vote on election day.
“You don’t go vote if you voted,” Barron said. “I would hope nobody voted twice.” If someone did vote twice, Barron said, the state election board would catch it.
False reports surfaced at Therrell High School, with some voters saying machines were inoperable. Fulton County spokeswoman April Majors said the rumors were false and she wasn’t sure how they spread.
TRAFFIC: Commuters fight delays on the way home
Voters in Fulton and Cobb reported few issues, with most voters casting ballots early.
DeKalb Elections Director Maxine Daniels told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she was looking into concerns at Rock Chapel Elementary in Lithonia that some voters were told they did not have proper proof of citizenship, as first reported by ProPublica's Electionland project. Those voters by law are allowed to vote using a provisional or "challenge" ballot.
Mansfield Mayor Jefferson Riley created a firestorm when he told voters on Facebook that Republicans vote on Tuesday and Democrats vote on Wednesday. He later deleted his post.
The Georgia NAACP chapter accused the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office of voter intimidation after they say deputies were decked out in political paraphernalia and openly campaigning.
“We have received numerous complaints from citizens in Forsyth County, Georgia that the Sheriff’s Office is decorated in partisan campaign paraphernalia,” the organization’s president, Francys Johnson, said in a news release. “The complaints also point to deputies in full uniform and/or in patrol cars engaged in political campaigning.”
But Forsyth sheriff’s spokesman Maj. Rick Doyle said the office hadn’t received reports of deputies dressed in campaign attire and that they aren’t allowed to wear political paraphernalia with their uniform. They also are not allowed to campaign on the job.
— Staff writers Arielle Kass, Joshua Sharpe and Tyler Estep contributed to this article.
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