COVINGTON, Ga. — When a Republican Party ballot-reviewer refused to wear a mask amid rising COVID-19 infections, Democratic Party volunteers walked out for fear for their health, creating a stalemate that threatened the ability for all votes to be tallied in Newton County.
The Newton County elections board and the Democratic Party reached a tentative resolution to the disagreement Thursday, with the Democrats agreeing to replace their appointee to the county’s vote-review panel.
The Republican Party didn’t make any concessions. The Republican reviewer who refused to wear a mask, Leesha Jay, is the wife of county GOP chairman Scott Jay. She wanted to wear a face shield, but Democrats said that was inadequate.
The clash had the potential to stop election results in Newton County, located 40 miles east of Atlanta, after Tuesday’s runoff for two U.S. Senate seats.
The county wouldn’t have been able to certify election results without the vote-review panel, which decides voter intent when absentee ballot ovals aren’t filled completely or ballots get torn in the mail, according to an attorney for the elections board.
“I have never seen the place where we are now, and it’s not all about COVID,” said Philip Johnson, chairman of the county elections board. “We have become a partisan, divisive country, and it disappoints and disturbs me.”
The disagreement began last week when Leesha Jay, the Republican election observer who is also the party’s appointee to the vote review panel, refused to wear a mask as absentee ballot envelopes were being opened for processing.
The chairman of the county Democratic Party, an emergency room technician, then told his party’s observers to leave rather than risk their health.
Newton County requires masks in public places and government buildings, but anyone who has a health or conscientious objection to masks is exempt, according to an attorney for the county.
“We are not going where it’s not safe. That’s ridiculous,” said K. Theresa Hesterley, the original Democratic Party appointee to the vote-review panel, at Thursday’s meeting of the county elections board.
There have been 546 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents in Newton County over the last two weeks, lower than the 674 cases per 100,000 residents statewide, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Scott Jay said his party hadn’t done anything wrong and was entitled to have his wife review questionable ballots. Members of the Republican Party didn’t attend the elections board meeting Thursday.
“The Republican Party is not the ones that are obstructing the process,” Scott Jay said when reached by phone. “A mask is not required. I don’t see the problem from the Republican side that any changes need to be made. We’re doing what’s best for our party and our voters.”
While the number of ballots that will be considered by the vote-review panel will likely be only a few dozen, those votes needed to be counted before the county can report its results. Through Wednesday, about 29,000 people had voted in Newton County, where Joe Biden won 55% of the votes over President Donald Trump in the general election.
The partisan disagreement exposed a flaw in Georgia laws that could allow either political party to hold up vote-counting, Johnson said. If a representative of a political party declined to participate in the vote-review panel, the count would stop.
The elections board voted to approve a resolution allowing Johnson to ask a judge to intervene if necessary.
Ryan Barrett, the county’s Democratic Party chairman, said he agreed to serve on the vote-review panel if he’s provided with a full-face mask and if plexiglass dividers separate the panel’s members. The other members of the panel will be Johnson and Leesha Jay.
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