Pair of Fulton County polling sites to stay open late after delayed start, interim director says
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - Fulton County elections officials said two polling locations will stay open late to make up for time lost when the sites encountered technical issues.
Tuesday is the official day for Georgians to cast ballots in primaries. Nadine Williams, Interim Director of Registration and Elections in Fulton County, said two sites opened about 30 minutes late on Tuesday and will stay open later to make up for lost time, per court order.
The sites were Hopewell Middle School near Milton and Creel Park near College Park. Typically, election day poll hours for Georgia’s primaries began at 7 a.m. and will remain open for 12 hours.
In a morning update, Williams said all the county's 250 polling sites were up and running. About 91,000 voters had already cast ballots during early voting.
Williams said Fulton County elections officials are ironing out some technical problems encountered during early voting to prepare for the 2022 midterm elections in November.
"We're going to work of a different way to get login passwords for the apps that we have to log into to make that process a lot easier prior to advanced voting," Williams said.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE VOTING IN GEORGIA
Williams said she hadn't heard of any long lines on Tuesday morning they're expecting bigger crowds before polls begin closing. Williams said the county received about 2,000 requests for absentee ballots, and the office rejected some citing ID requirements.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is on the ballot, said his office is monitoring elections in Fulton County, but they hadn't identified other problems. Polling sites in Chatham County, near Savannah, and Bibb County, near Macon, also opened late. Raffensperger didn't have specifics on the issues polling places had, but he wasn't concerned about impacts past Tuesday morning.
"Typically it's getting all the equipment up and going by 7 a.m.," Raffensperger said. "This time I don't think it was anyone leaving a key at home or anything like that."
Raffensperger said a full-time investigator was assigned to Fulton County. Williams said Fulton County's election staff is prepared for increased scrutiny.
"We're used to the pressure, unfortunately, because we are the largest county," Williams said. "That's just the nature of the beast."