Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the state House speaker have called for investigations into voting delays in Atlanta and across Georgia that lasted hours for voters looking to cast ballots during Tuesday's primary. Voting was extended at some precincts in eight counties.
The party is bringing suit against Raffensperger as well as members of the Georgia State election board, citing notification requirements that the party deemed "impossible for several county boards of election to comply with."
"As county election officials have made clear, the volume of absentee ballots and provisional ballots cast and collected, combined with a shortage of poll workers justifiably fearful of exposure to the novel coronavirus, have overwhelmed election officials," party officials wrote in court documents, noting that "tens of thousands of ballots have not been processed in several counties, let alone examined and verified or rejected within three days of the election, as required by" ballot regulations.
CNN has reached out to Raffensperger's office for comment.
The group noted that Georgia voters are required to "cure," or correct, issues with provisional or absentee ballots by Friday, but that "some voters have not even been given notice that there is a deficiency in their ballot that needs to be cured."
The party is asking a judge to require Raffensperger to direct by 9 p.m. ET Friday all county election superintendents to contact voters within one business day if their ballots are rejected, and to grant any Georgia voter whose ballot is rejected until next Friday, June 19, to submit information they think could factor into their ballot being accepted.
"A ballot for which such information is timely received under this order is otherwise valid pursuant to Georgia law and shall be counted and included with the certified election returns submitted by the applicable county," Georgia Democrats said in their request, which asks that Raffensperger be prohibited from certifying county elections results until three days after all counties have done so.
The Democratic Party noted in a press release that more than 943,000 voters had returned an absentee ballot this year, whereas nearly 285,000 did so in the 2018 election.
Democratic Party of Georgia Chairwoman Nikema Williams said in a statement Friday that "voters deserve to know that their vote is counted, and have the chance to correct any errors."
"Amid the many issues we saw across the state on Tuesday, Georgia's failure to communicate with voters means Georgians still don't know whether their vote was counted in this primary," she added. "Our democracy depends on the basic premise that every person's vote counts. This must be fixed immediately."
State election officials blamed inexperienced election workers for the problems on Tuesday, as well as safety issues related to the coronavirus, including the heightened use of absentee ballots. They have pushed back on suggestions that malfunctioning equipment is causing delays. Several voters with whom CNN has spoken, however, have said they were having difficulty using election machines and machines were reported down at multiple locations by voters.
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June 13, 2020 at 08:24AM
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Georgia Democrats seek additional time for voters to correct rejected ballots - CNN
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