Voters claim machine registered wrong candidate during voting

BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. - The Georgia NAACP branch says they have received complaints about voting machine irregularities in five counties statewide.

One of those complaints comes from Bartow Country voter Pamela Grimes, who says she had problems casting her ballot last Thursday during early voting.

“I pushed Stacey Abrams and it placed an ‘X’ in the box for Brian Kemp. So, that concerned me,” said voter Pamela Grimes.

Ms. Grimes, who has been voting since she turned 18, said she attempted to vote a second time and the same thing happened.

She says it took three tries before her vote was cast properly, which frustrates her.

“You knew that early voting was coming up, so let’s be pro-active and take care of this beforehand,” the public works employee complained.

Bartow County Election Supervisor Joseph Kirk says he did calibrate all of the counties machines before early voting started October 15. He does, however, concede that many of his machines are older.

“This is a calibration issue. That is all this is.  this is older technology and the machines were uploaded in 2002, the springs have to be calibrated to say when you touch this spot, this is what you are actually touching,” Elections Supervisor Joseph Kirk remarked. Mr. Kirk says he would advise voters to tell poll workers immediately when they have a problem, so the machine can be fixed.

Georgia NAACP President Phyllis Blake says the problems with Georgia’s Voting machine are not new. She says the NAACP has complained since 2008.

“This is a shame and speaks to the integrity of our voting machines and election officials,” Ms. Blake complained.

“These machines from 2002 should have been gotten rid of a long time ago,” Mrs. Blake remarked.

Complaints from Bartow, Candler, Cobb, Dodge, and Henry counties have already come into the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.

A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brian Kemp says their office is aware of the concerns and they are trying to gather more information and talk to the voters involved. They say no official investigation has been launched yet.