Fulton poll workers fired over social media posts

As early afternoon approached on Election Day 2022, short lines were reported across Georgia’s most populous county’s 249 polling stations.

As Fulton County officials expect record turnout for the midterm election, the first part of Tuesday’s voting days went relatively smoothly. The county’s online tool showed wait times at pollution sites of less than 30 minutes by Tuesday afternoon.

The day was not without its problems, however, as a mother and son were removed from poll worker duty before a Johns Creek site opened at 7 a.m.

A poll worker alerted election administrators about social media posts made by a woman working at the north Atlanta suburb site, said Nadine Williams, interim director of elections for Fulton.

According to Williams, the posts violated the law that prohibits taking photos and video inside polling places, and there was concern that they posed a security threat. Fulton County then contacted the secretary of state’s office about the matter.

“For the safety for the election, we decided to remove them until we can complete the investigation,” Williams said.

Police officers are stationed at about half of the county’s 249 polling places and rotate among them to ensure the safety of voters and poll workers, Williams said.

Cathy Woolard, chair of the Fulton Election Board, said its a huge undertaking of running an election in a county with 800,000 registered voters and 3,000 volunteers, but Election Day has gone well so far.

“We expect that they will go smoothly today because we’ve anticipated as much as we can,” Woolard said. “But again, with such a large number of people voting locations, distances, there’s always the opportunity for things to not go as well as we want them to.”