Atlanta-area county hit for cutting early voting locations
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — One of Atlanta's largest suburban counties is under fire for cutting its number of early voting locations for Georgia's twin U.S. Senate runoffs.
But Cobb County's elections director says the county is only opening five locations, down from 11 before the November general election, because the county can't find experienced poll workers willing to work during the early voting period, which coincides with Christmas.
Speaking to the county’s Board of Elections last week, Elections Director Janine Eveler said “it really wasn’t our intention to drop back quite that much because we have two high profile Senate races.”
“Our hands were sort of forced,” the Marietta Daily Journal reported she said, noting people quit or refused to work long hours over the holidays. “This was as much as we could staff,” she said.
Early voting begins statewide on Dec. 14 and ends Dec. 30 or Dec. 31 in most counties. The state also offers mail-in ballots and people can vote in person at their regularly assigned precinct on Jan. 5. In the November election, Democrats dominated mail-in balloting, while Republicans won early in person voting and election day voting.
Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue is being challenged by Democrat Jon Ossoff, while Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is being challenged by Democrat Raphael Warnock. If Democrats win both races, they would control a tied U.S. Senate because Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the tie-breaking vote. Republicans will maintain control of the Senate if they win even one race.
Ossoff and Warnock on Monday in a joint statement called the move “unacceptable.”
“This plan will result in longer lines, longer wait times and more barriers to the basic right of casting a ballot,” the two said. "It’s especially disturbing that the voters who stand to be impacted the most are people of color. Cobb County must change course and restore the 11 early voting locations so that Georgians can participate in this critically important election.”
On Monday, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and five other groups sent a letter to Cobb County officials saying the closures would disproportionately hurt Black and Latino voters because some locations were in neighborhoods where those voters live.
The groups said they would help recruit and train poll workers in response to Eveler's concerns.
Cobb County, with more than 750,000, is the third-most populous county in Georgia. Long a Republican stronghold, it is trending Democratic, with Joe Biden carrying 56% of the vote in the county, and Democrats taking control of many local offices.
The state's other three most populous counties told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that they will maintain the same number of polling places
Counties are only required to hold early voting at their main elections office during normal business hours and on one Saturday. Additional sites and longer hours are optional.