State has been in the headline of every news story EVERYWHERE! Everybody in management, from

[napi21]

the Secretary of State down to the person who was in charge at the polls has done everything they possibly could have done WRONG!!!! Anyone with half a brain knows when you set up new equipment you train well BEFORE YOU GO LIVE! I've read some of the dumbest excuses for why there were problems. Passwords didn't work, people at the polls didn't know to work the machines, sccess codes didn'pt work.......NONE OF THOSE WOULD HAVE EXISTED IF THERE HAD BEEN "ONE DAY" OF TRAINING!

I wrote to our Governor this morning to tell him those same complaints, and to promise him he will not serve a second term if this mess isn't corrected immediately!

Lots could have been different. New machines were purchased from a company that WASN'T RECOMMENDED by the committee that did the research. Instead the Governor's campaign contributor was awarded the job...the biggest job they ever had! It was rushed through and installed in a rush. That Company SHOULD HAVE told the Governor that it's a bad idea to rush this big of a job, that involves hundreds of inexperienced poll workers, and A Million+ of the public. Better to slow down & do it right.

How many votes were lost because people couldn't vote? We'll never know.

[leftieNanner]

1. Unfortunately

It may have been a trial run for how to screw up the vote for November.

Hope not.

[erronis]

2. I'm missing a lot of background. Are we talking about Georgia or somewhere else? (nt)

[napi21]

3. It's Ga. Sorry, I am so POed I forgot to show the State name. n/t

[erronis]

5. Totally understand! And Georgia always comes to mind when thinking about (r)epuglicon corruption.

Altho many other states are in the running.

Thanks and condolences.

[Nevilledog]

4. It's almost like they don't want people to vote.

[0rganism]

6. intentional n/t

[keithbvadu2]

7. Did all voting places have the problems or just select ones?

Did all voting places have the problems or just select ones?

[crickets]

9. It seems it was mostly centered around Atlanta.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/politics/georgia-primary-election-delays/index.html

There are at least eight counties involved from what I can tell (couldn't find a specific list, sorry) and the big excuse is that staffing was insufficient at the last minute because of coronavirus concerns. It's infuriating because they should have had confirmed staff lined up and ready to go, and apparently in some places they didn't.

I live in SW GA in a fairly small town and our voting went off without a hitch. There were plenty of poll workers, there didn't seem to be any problem with the number of machines, they all worked, the paper ballots were printed out (yes!) and collected in a secure ballot box. It sounds to me (I could be wrong) that the problem was not the machines but the people in charge of specific polling places. This was surmountable if someone had bothered to deal with it beforehand instead of getting caught short just before the day.

I'm a big hater of voting machines in GA from the day they first replaced punch card voting, and from what I saw the new machines worked flawlessly. I blame whoever was in charge who didn't get their staff lined up and trained on time:

Georgia State Rep. David Dreyer, who represents a portion of Fulton County, had tried to recruit hundreds of poll workers on Twitter. "Fulton County needs 250 people to staff elections on Tuesday," Dreyer said in a Saturday tweet. "We need you. Please spread the word." [snip]

"I'm sorry to say it that way, but we have 159 counties, 150 of them had almost no problem whatsoever, and they all receive the same level of training from the Secretary of State," Sterling said. "We train the trainers, the counties are in charge of training the poll workers. We're all going to learn from this."

Other excuses floating around: the elderly poll workers not being able to handle the tech - well hello ageism, also we've had voting machines for years. All they had to do was train beforehand. Voters might be confused by using a stylus - not that difficult to use and we've all seen them at stores and businesses for years now. Btw, I didn't see a stylus at my voting booth and my gloved finger worked just fine.

Atlanta and surrounding counties tend to be the bluest, so it could seem suspicious that those are the areas where the problems occurred - at first glance. But finding out that people who had extra weeks to plan were trying to round up staff on Twitter the weekend before the vote? Pffft. That is not a machine problem. That's an idiot human problem.

eta - another problem was with closed polling places. Apparently a large number of schools, churches, and VFW halls that normally would be available decided to opt out this time around. Again, this is a problem that could have been handled better if it had been addressed earlier.

[napi21]

10. Your research is correct. The problems seemed to be in mostly black areas. Humph, big surprise huh?

The reasons I've read appeared to me, not necessarily all humans fault. Some ctys reported their pin # didn't work. Others said the info wouldn't download to the new machines. I hate to say it, but this State has a long history of prejudice & it's more than I can excuse if the problems affected black areas only. I hope it gets remedied by November. If I could do something to help I would, but I live about 40 miles north of Atlanta and I'm an old white lady. Can't imagine the Sec of State paying much attention to my bitchin!

[lostnfound]

8. Not "training". Intentional. Machines probably set up in a nonstandard way. Nt

[napi21]

11. Here's an update of info on Ga. voting problems from AJC: This info blew my mind!

Poll workers couldn’t get the state’s new voting equipment working. Voting machines were delivered after polls opened in some precincts in Fulton and Gwinnett counties. Precincts closed because of the coronavirus, some shortly before election day, forcing voters into fewer voting locations.Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also said it was unacceptable for voters to wait in hours-long lines that wrapped around buildings. He said he’ll review what could be done better and what additional training is needed.


Notice that one line, VOTING MACHINES WERE DELIVERED AFTER THE POLLS OPENED IN SOME PRECINCTS! I was complaining about people not being trained! I WAS WRONG! How could they be traineed when the damn machines weren't even delivered?