Fulton elections director: Things have gone 'relatively smooth' compared to past elections
No votes have vanished into thin air, for example
- Joeff Davis
- Voters this morning cast ballots in southwest Atlanta.
Fulton County has a poor track record when it comes to handling elections. During the 2012 presidential election, lengthy lines and misplaced ballots prompted an investigation from Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens. Last year, Fulton Registration and Elections Director Richard Barron referred to further problems looming over Atlanta's elections as a "black cloud."
But Barron says things seem to be looking up for the county's beleaguered elections office. Earlier this afternoon, Barron said today's election has gone "relatively smooth" compared to past years. More than 60,000 people had cast ballots at the county's 226 polling places by 1 p.m. He anticipates that up to 190,000 Fulton residents will vote by the time the polls close.
According to Barron, Fulton "basically doubled" its early voting figures this year - approximately 89,000 voters cast their ballots early - compared to the 2010 midterm elections. Election officials this year also have counted more than 12,000 absentee voter application ballots.
He says that early voting, which took place at 19 different precincts over a three-week period, helped alleviate some of the stress on Election Day poll workers. Barron said all polls opened on time at 7 a.m. Only four precincts reported minor "technical" difficulties - most calls were related to problems with the secretary of state's "My Voter Page" website. At one location, a poll worker forgot to turn on a power strip that drained an express poll's batteries. Barron said his office sent technicians to fix the issues once they heard about the problems.
"When you have 226 polling locations open, and you're going to have 180,000 people descend on those in 12 hours, and you're dealing with humans technology, you'll always have a few things here and there," Barron said.
Barron says his goal is to eventually get up to 70 percent of Fulton voters casting early ballots in future elections.