Georgia Counties Tackle Processing Absentee Ballots As Election Day Nears

Workers in DeKalb County have begun processing thousands of absentee ballots for the November general election.

Emil Moffatt / WABE

In an industrial warehouse attached to the DeKalb County elections office, dozens of workers wear N95 protective masks and sit at spaced-out tables. They’re a mix of county employees, poll workers and volunteers.  In front of them are bins of absentee ballots.

These ballots have already been verified and accepted, according to DeKalb County elections director Erica Hamilton, meaning the signatures on the outer envelope have been matched against what the county has on file.

“So what they’re doing is opening the ballots, stacking them in stacks of a hundred, making sure there’s no discrepancy — that the same amount of oath envelops we have is the same amount of ballots,” Hamilton continued. “Once they’re prepared, we’ll take them from this area down to our tabulation room and begin to scan them.”