Fulton County Election Officials Say Voters Should Verify Their Polling Places
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says the information on the My Voter Page is reliable and provides the latest polling place information as submitted by counties.
Emil Moffatt WABE
As many as a third of Fulton County voters who choose to cast a ballot on Election Day will be heading to a different polling place than they’re used to.
County elections officials are encouraging voters to check beforehand to make sure they’re going to the right place.
Fulton’s elections director Richard Barron says many of the 91 polling place changes are designed to reduce the number of voters assigned to each polling place.
“Our goal was to get 5,000 or less in as many precincts as possible, we almost achieved getting that to a 100% level,” said Barron, who noted that only about a dozen of the 255 polling places for the November election have more than 5,000 voters assigned to them.
While this shuffle could help in reducing lines, it could also cause confusion if voters show up at the wrong place.
Fulton County chairman Robb Pitts reinforced Barron’s message during a virtual press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“Just four quick words: know before you go,” said Pitts.
Aklima Khondoker is the Georgia state director for the group All Voting is Local. She says having a voting plan isn’t just knowing when you’re going to vote, but where.
“That is part of coming up with their plan, figuring out where they need to be. Check with the secretary of state, check with your local county,” said Khondoker.
Counties, including Fulton have sent postcards to voters whose polling place has changed. Voters can also look up their information at Georgia’s My Voter Page or by calling their county’s elections office.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says the information on the My Voter Page is reliable and provides the latest polling place information as submitted by counties.
“We’ve been look at that, checking into that and they’re [the counties] are very timely in that,” said Raffensperger. “We want to make sure that it’s up to date and current.”
Fulton, DeKalb and Cobb counties also have a list of polling place changes on their websites.
Georgia Passes 3 Million Mark in Early, Absentee Votes
The state of Georgia on Tuesday crossed the 3 million mark in votes cast for the 2020 general election.
That total combines early voting and absentee mail-in ballots.
Raffensperger says Georgia could surpass the 4 million mark when early voting ends Friday and absentee ballots continue to pour in. He predicts a big turnout on Election Day as well.
“We’re expecting still, we’ll be looking at say 2 million people show up next Tuesday. So we’re looking at about 6 million, plus or minus. It’ll be a record turnout,” said Raffensperger.
The previous record was 4.1 million votes in the 2016 presidential election.
Georgia currently has 7.6 million registered voters, about 7.2 million of them are active. That compares to November of 2016 when the state had 6.6 million registered voters, 5.4 million of them active.
Barron says Fulton County is projected to see about 470,000 votes cast before Election Day. That would represent about 76% of the county’s expected turnout for this election.
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