The terms “unconstitutional” and “absurd” have been thrown around by Georgia residents and poll watchers from across the country in regards to Tuesday’s Georgia primary election.
With Georgia voters bemoaning extensive waits and chronic computer problems, the Georgia primary election has become the topic of the day on social media in Georgia and abroad.
By Tuesday night, dozens of folks had flocked to Twitter to complain about the glitches on the new computerized ballot machines and how the coronavirus pandemic and the guidelines that come with it led to long lines. Several voters reported waiting in line for 2-3 three hours and some had even more exorbitant wait times.
The hiccups across the state made it necessary for several counties to extend voting hours until as late as 10 p.m. in Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton counties.
The voting headaches and threats of lawsuits kept Georgia’s primary in the national news and on national social feeds throughout the day Tuesday.
Here’s a sampling of how some Georgians and national onlookers have viewed the outcome and experience voting in Georgia’s primary election:
One of the earliest critiques of voting problems came from an unlikely place Tuesday −the Twitter account of NBA champion LeBron James. He pointed at the voting issues in some parts of Georgia as “structurally racist.”
Another famous voice with the political chops to match, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, also chimed in about Tuesday’s voting problems in Georgia.
“What happened in Georgia yesterday was by design,” Clinton wrote in a post that included an image of the AJC’s Wednesday front page. “Voter suppression is a threat to our democracy.”
Other national spectators scoffed at reports from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other publications about polling locations, like ones in Gwinnett, opening late, which turned into the voting issues snowballing.
One Twitter user from Texas, Will Brooks, retweeted Pulitzer Prize winner and AJC cartoonist’s Mike Luckovich’s cartoon for the day, which pokes fun at the waits by showing a person with a Georgia voting sticker that reads “I tried to vote in Georgia.”
Some alluded to Georgia’s marred past as being a state affiliated with voter suppression. Gov. Brian Kemp and his Democratic contender Stacey Abrams were embattled for months over votes in the governor’s race in 2018.
While some could say their waits were nonexistent, there were still critiques on the overall voting experience for some Georgians.
Some even called for the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to resign due to the inefficient voting experiences.
The New York Times weighed in with stories about the voting issues in the Peach State and provided drone footage from seemingly neverending lines, on a particularly hot day, at Georgia locations.
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