On March 11, 2020, the Atlanta Hawks lost at home to the New York Knicks in overtime, 131 to 136, and the NBA abruptly suspended its season due to COVID-19. State Farm Arena’s newly renovated luxury suites would sit empty. And, sometime over those next eight months, water pressure began to build in the plumbing of one of the deserted bathrooms. In the wee hours of Election Day, November 3, a urinal overflowed, and water seeped through the floor and cascaded into the room below—where the Fulton County elections department had been processing mail-in ballots for days. It rained down near the machines used to open envelopes, optical scanners, and black plastic totes filled with ballots.
Shaye Moss arrived around 5:30 a.m. Since 2012, when she started working in Fulton County’s elections department, she had sometimes dressed up for Election Day. But after working long hours all week, the 36-year-old with waist-length, blond braids had just pulled on some Ugg boots and plain black pants.
Moss passed through security and took the elevator up to the suite level. When she opened the door to Fulton’s mail-in ballot operation, she saw water pooling on the gray carpet. “It was a horrible thing,” says Moss, who had recently been promoted to supervise the operation. As other employees and temp workers began to arrive, State Farm Arena staff hustled for the wet vacs.
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