Problems with Georgia’s new voting computers plagued the state’s primary election early Tuesday, leading to long lines and voters leaving without casting their ballots in some counties, the AJC reports.
Statewide Voting Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling said the problems were caused by poll workers who didn’t know how to set up the equipment. In some instances, the poll workers were inserting voter access cards upside down, according to the secretary of state’s office.
There were no such problems evident at the Habersham North Precinct in Clarkesville when Now Habersham’s Margie Williamson cast her ballot mid-morning.
“I walked right in about 10 and there was no one waiting. By the time I finished checking in, there was a short line, but not bad,” she says.
Williamson says all of the equipment at the North Precinct was functioning properly.
“As I checked in, I was given a stylus to sign in on the screen instead of filling out paperwork. I used the stylus pen to vote so I never touched a screen,” she says. She printed her ballot which was then run through a vote-counting machine.
The whole process took less than ten minutes.
Lines and wait times are likely to increase as people head home from work, but given the high percentage of early voters, they likely won’t be as long as in year’s past. As of Monday, 30% of the Habersham County’s active registered voters already had cast ballots. In 2016, the county recorded a 40% overall primary voter turnout that included early, absentee, and election day voters.
