Voting Nightmare in Atlanta

[lpetrich]

Ben Rhodes on Twitter: "This is not a democracy. It's also the Republican strategy for November." / Twitter
noting
The New York Times on Twitter: "This drone footage shows a long line of voters waiting to cast ballots in Atlanta on Tuesday. Georgia election officials, poll workers and voters have reported major trouble with voting in Atlanta and elsewhere.
Read the latest. (links)" / Twitter
noting
Major Problems With Voting in Atlanta as 5 States Hold Primaries - The New York Times

Georgia election officials, poll workers and voters reported major trouble with voting in Atlanta and elsewhere on Tuesday as the state’s primaries got underway, most critically a series of problems with new voting machines that forced many people across the state to wait in long lines and cast provisional ballots.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on Twitter that voting machines were not working in many parts of the city. Poll workers in several locations were having difficulty operating the machines, which were new models.

“If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed,” Ms. Bottoms wrote. “PLEASE stay in line.”

 

[lpetrich]

Dan Rather on Twitter: "So much news today, but don't overlook the voting debacle happening right now in Georgia. This is a dire wakeup call for November - long lines, broken machines. It is a national outrage that undermines the legitimacy of our democracy." / Twitter


Laura Barrón-López on Twitter: "Took @MsLaToshaBrown 3hrs to vote today in GA. Then Brown drove over to predominantly white polling site in Atl suburbs
“I come over to this side of town, and white folks are strolling in. On my side of town, we brought stadium chairs.”
(link)W/@ZachMontellaro" / Twitter

Laura Barrón-López on Twitter: "@MsLaToshaBrown @ZachMontellaro Brown was near tears when we spoke. Saying her nephew had to wait 6hrs to vote on Friday during early voting.
"We have got to stop making voting a traumatic damn experience for black voters," said Brown. (link)" / Twitter

Laura Barrón-López on Twitter: "@MsLaToshaBrown @ZachMontellaro .@GaSecofState office shared stmt from state's voting implementation mgr blaming counties for "poor planning, limited training, & failures of leadership."
Raffensperger said situation was "unacceptable," would investigate what counties need to do to resolve issues before Nov" / Twitter

Almost as if they only want honkies to vote, the ones who run the elections.

 

[lpetrich]

‘A hot, flaming mess’: Georgia primary beset by chaos, long lines - POLITICO

Some voters in Georgia are experiencing hourslong lines to cast their ballots in Tuesday's primary, with officials trading blame for who, exactly, is responsible for the latest trip-up in holding an election during the pandemic.

Since polls opened early Tuesday morning, voters in Georgia — especially in and around Atlanta — have reported problems with voting machines and long lines, with some voters leaving without casting a ballot. The problems are a troubling sign for the burgeoning swing state's ability to handle the expected high turnout for November's presidential election.

“We’ve received reports about long lines, polling sites that have opened late and broken machines,” Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said. The Lawyers’ Committee maintains a national voter protection hotline. “What’s disturbing is that these problems appear widespread, and not isolated.”

“It has been most disturbing to hear about voters who have given up. Voters who were not able to withstand the long wait times, voters who had one shot this morning,” she added. “Those are people who may be flatly disenfranchised.”

“It’s a hot, flaming, f---ing mess,” Nse Ufot, executive director of New Georgia Project, said in a text Tuesday. At multiple sites in Fulton County, new voting machines were down, some sites were waiting for technical support and others had difficulty logging into the machines, Ufot said.

 

[lpetrich]

Ron Clark on Twitter: "Here trying to vote in Central Park in Atlanta. They said all machines are broken and not working and that they reported it before today but no one responded. Hundreds in this line and in 50 minutes only 4 people have voted. They are doing by hand. @staceyabrams" / Twitter

A. Perkins on Twitter: "ONE out of 12 voting machines working? Make it make sense! *" / Twitter
noted in
Georgia’s Primary Disaster Does Not Bode Well For 2020 | Vanity Fair

New procedures instituted as a result of the coronavirus crisis caused havoc at the polls Tuesday, with long lines and faulty machines—only heightening concerns about voter suppression in November.

Georgia’s twice-delayed primary election kicked off on Tuesday with new procedures prompted by the coronavirus, creating havoc for voters across the state. Along with exceedingly long lines and delayed openings, the Washington Post reports that polling places in at least four counties had no working voting machines during the first hour of voting. The Associated Press cites Georgia’s new touchscreen voting system for dozens of contests—such as president and U.S. Senate—as among the factors that caused Tuesday’s rocky start.

Mark Niesse on Twitter: "Voters line up at Park Tavern at Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta. It’s going to be a long wait. Good luck voters! https://t.co/7op7k1VvlT" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

RyanAmorellWoodbury on Twitter: "Major issues in College Park GA at the polling place. No affidavit, scanners not working, not enough workers! @11AliveNews @wsbtv @FOX5Atlanta [MENTION=990]CO[/MENTION]llegePark_Ga SEND HELP" / Twitter
noted in
Georgia primary blighted by long lines and broken voting machines | US news | The Guardian

Georgia voters immediately encountered hours-long lines and equipment malfunctions as they showed up to vote in person in the state’s primary races on Tuesday. Today is the latest high-stakes test of whether a state can hold an election during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tuesday also marked the first time Georgia was using new voting equipment, and voters reported malfunctions on Tuesday morning. The Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, tweeted that at some precincts no machines were working.

 

[lpetrich]

As to what might be causing all these difficulties, AOC has a theory.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Republicans don’t want vote by mail bc it chips away at their ability to do exactly this: target and disenfranchise Black voters and people of color.
These scenes are specifically happening in Black communities, not white ones.
This is BY DESIGN,& it’s their test run for Nov " / Twitter
noting
The New York Times on Twitter: "This drone footage shows a long line of voters waiting to cast ballots in Atlanta on Tuesday. Georgia election officials, poll workers and voters have reported major trouble with voting in Atlanta and elsewhere.
Read the latest. (link to my earlier-noted NYT story)" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "These lines are not showing up as a consistent failure across the state. They are happening in majority-BIPOC precincts https://t.co/VFbUZu6SFI" / Twitter
noting
igorvolsky on Twitter: "Hours-long waits, problems with new voting machines and a lack of available ballots plagued voters in majority minority counties in Georgia on Tuesday.... In Roswell, a mostly white Atlanta suburb, there were far fewer problems. https://t.co/IYlWs2Zat4" / Twitter
noting
Georgia election 'catastrophe' in largely minority areas sparks investigation - "Long lines, lack of voting machines and shortage of primary ballots plagued voters."

Hours-long waits, problems with new voting machines and a lack of available ballots plagued voters in majority minority counties in Georgia on Tuesday — conditions the secretary of state called "unacceptable" and vowed to investigate.

Democrats and election watchers said voting issues in a state that has been plagued for years with similar problems, along with allegations of racial bias, didn't bode well for the November presidential election when Georgia could be in play.

"This seems to be happening throughout Atlanta and perhaps throughout the county. People have been in line since before 7:00 am this morning," Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, tweeted shortly after polls were supposed to open — and in some cases still hadn't.

 

[Axulus]

Is AOC accusing the Georgia secretary of state of being a secret democrat?

Considering the health risks posed by COVID-19, Georgians should seriously consider submitting an absentee ballot by mail for the June 9 elections,” said Raffensperger. “While we understand the Georgia tradition of in-person voting and look forward to returning to normal in-person voting in future elections, the extra precautions necessary to preserve voter and poll worker health during the pandemic will result in long wait times and an increased health risk that could be avoided through absentee ballots for this election.

https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/electi...s_result_in_long_wait_times_at_the_ballot_box

Also, who is responsible for running the Atlanta polling stations? The city and two counties are controlled by Democrats.

 

[zorq]

Georgia's Republican State House leader, David Ralston, let loose the true position of Republicans when he insisted that mail-in voting is ”devastating to Republicans.”

 

[Derec]

Ben Rhodes on Twitter: "This is not a democracy. It's also the Republican strategy for November." / Twitter
noting
The New York Times on Twitter: "This drone footage shows a long line of voters waiting to cast ballots in Atlanta on Tuesday. Georgia election officials, poll workers and voters have reported major trouble with voting in Atlanta and elsewhere.

Elections are run by local governments. In counties like Fulton and DeKalb, that means Democrats.

 

[Derec]

Georgia's Republican State House leader, David Ralston, let loose the true position of Republicans when he insisted that mail-in voting is ”devastating to Republicans.”

And yet, due to COVID every registered voted in Georgia was sent a mailing with which one could request a mail-in ballot.

 

[zorq]

Do you think Republicans deserve extra credit for begrudgingly doing the right thing? Wouldn't it be great if they did the right thing without complaining about it? Whining about how their voter suppression probably won't be as good as they hoped?

 

[southernhybrid]

My county didn't have many problems. A friend of mine worked the polls yesterday and she said that they only had one voting machine that didn't work. But, she also said that most of the workers are older adults and they had some difficulty understanding the new machines. My friend is only 40 and she helped the older workers with the machines. Still, it does sound as if a lot more training was needed before yesterday.

Most of my friends voted by mail or voted early. I plan on voting by mail in the general and I'm encouraging friends to do the same. But, there were a large number of voters in the larger counties that claim they applied for an absentee ballots but never received one. So, I think a lot more needs to be investigated before we really know what happened in the Atlanta area. First of all, why were there so many voting machines that weren't working? Did the poll workers receive adequate training on the new machines? Why did so many people say they applied for a mail in ballot but never received one? It might just be incompetence at the state level. Since this was just a primary, there was nothing for Republicans to gain by making it harder for people to vote. I tend to think this may have been about incompetence on both the state and county level.

I voted back in March for the presidential primary before Kemp changed the date. I voted early and there were only a few people waiting to vote. But, it did take much longer than usual. The new process has an extra step that made voting slower. That is the primary reason why I will keep voting by mail. Since I'm over 65, I'm not required to apply again for a mail in ballot for November. Considering all of the fuck ups that Georgia has had over the last two elections, perhaps it'a time for all voting to be by mail. We already have so many options, like three weeks of early voting. Why not just go all mail in? Kemp said he was going to have places where people could drop their mail in ballots so they wouldn't have to worry about postage, but I have not seen a single one yet. Is that another example of incompetence at the state level?

 

[lpetrich]

More and more.

Abby D. Phillip on Twitter: "Absentee ballot mystery: Georgia says 96% of ballots that were requested were delivered. Voters and local officials report many people did not receive them so they showed up in person. Vendor used by state says they sent out 100% of ballots. What happened? No one seems to know" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Wow." / Twitter
noting
Kyle Griffin on Twitter: "Stacey Abrams said that she had requested her absentee ballot in May, but was unable to vote with it because the return envelope arrived sealed shut. After unsuccessfully trying to steam it open, she said she went to vote in person on Tuesday in Georgia. https://t.co/UluWVBEdho" / Twitter

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Sounds like the system is working as designed and this was a successful beta test of November voter suppression.

 

[lpetrich]

‘An embarrassment’: Georgia Democrats decry disenfranchisement after election fiasco - POLITICO

Georgia political leaders on Wednesday condemned the chaos that unfolded during the state’s primary election — with Democrats alleging a fundamentally flawed voting system had again resulted in widespread disenfranchisement, and Republicans looking to cast blame for the debacle on local officials.

“What happened yesterday in Georgia was an embarrassment. It was a disgrace. It was an affront to the principles of our Constitution,” Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” after ballot-counting in the state stretched late into the night because of hourslong lines at polling sites and reports of broken voting machines.

Stacey Abrams:

“It didn’t simply happen in Democratic strongholds. It happened across the state,” she said. “Because one of the problems with voter suppression, with the incompetence and malfeasance that we see in the secretary of state’s office in Georgia, is that while the target may be communities of color, may be voters of color or Democratic voters, it hits everyone.”

Georgia, Nevada still counting ballots after day of voting problems - POLITICO - "Five states held primaries on Tuesday, but long lines and a surge of mail ballots made for a slow vote count."

Maryland also has a problem with slow ballot counting. At least one of its Congressional races has only 1/2 of precincts reporting, a week after the elections.

 

[lpetrich]

Black voters in Georgia say the state's primary meltdown was no accident - CNNPolitics

The long lines. Poll locations not opening on time. Workers flummoxed by new voting machines.

For Bobby Fuse, a long-time Democratic activist from Americus, Georgia, the chaos that gripped Tuesday's primary felt familiar -- and intentional.

"It's the same game that we were fighting 50 years ago," said Fuse, a 68-year-old political strategist who attended his first civil rights march -- a protest against the arrest of four black women for standing to vote in the line reserved for white women -- as a 13-year-old in July 1965.

"There's always some sneaky trick that's played," Fuse told CNN. "This time, they had a whole bunch of sneaky tricks."

Maryland is still stalled at about 50 - 60% counted. Georgia is at about 99% counted. Nevada is slowly advancing. West Virginia is all counted.