Georgia House committee begins primary election investigation

ATLANTA - For more than three hours Thursday, members of the House Governmental Affairs Committee heard testimony from poll workers, poll watchers, and voters about the problems they witnessed during Georgia's June 9 primary election.

"We want to hear from you know, the interested parties as to what they feel like went on June 9 that might be a problem," said State Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, who chairs the committee.

House Speaker David Ralston directed the group to investigate just hours into primary day.  He said it is important for an outside body to review what went wrong. 

"I don't think it's appropriate to have the Secretary of State investigating you know, the controversy when they're kind of in it, rightly or wrongly," said Speaker Ralston.  "Just the same as I would say I don't think Fulton County or DeKalb County ought to be in charge of the investigation."

During Thursday's hearing, several people testified that much of the poll workers' time was taken up by trying to cancel absentee ballots that never reached voters so people could instead cast their votes in person.  They also noted issues with the new voting machines, including voter cards that did not work and not enough electricity to power the electronic machines.

Rep. Blackmon said this meeting was just one of what will likely be several.