Politics & Government

Video: Registered Voter Explains Problems with Polling Place not Having her Name

A few reports of polling places not having registered voters on their rolls.

This video is just 1 report of a polling place not having a name on their list for a verified registered voter.

The young lady came to Westlake High School around 9 a.m., but was not permitted to vote because the polling place does not have her listed as a potential voter.  The voter did have a copy of the printout from the Georgia Secretary of State website, stating that her official polling place was at Westlake High School.  Poll workers at Westlake High School could not allow her to vote because their computers say she is registered to vote in Athens, GA.

By the time I talked to the voter, she had been in and out of the Westlake polling place for at least 2 hours trying to rectify the issue.  She said she was still quite confident that she would be able to cast her ballot, but worried that she would have to go back to work before getting the chance to vote.  She was leaving Westlake High School at the time, and making her way to another polling place where they say she will be able to get an Affidavit to vote.

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While spending 2 hours at Westlake, I heard at least 2 other people with the same issues.  We have been unable to determine if this is a greater problem within just some precincts or within the State's computer system.  We will have more if the story develops.

UPDATE:  The Fulton County Board of Elections responded generally to the issue above. They told fellow East Atlanta Patch reporter that, "everyone who had an election issue in terms of eligibility were given provisional ballots and all ballots will be counted."

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The voter in the video responded early Wednesday morning to let us know how her situation came to a conclusion:

...I just wanted to keep you updated and let you know that I went to the courthouse on Stonewall Tell and they looked up my official record.

The record showed that I was indeed registered to vote at Westlake High School. I was given a copy of record but not before I was told that this had been occurring all day. The administrator at the courthouse said she didn't know why their version was different from theirs.

I then took this copy of my official record back to Westlake. Since the record wasn't signed by anyone, it still wasn't enough to create me a card and let me vote... So after the polling manager made some calls she finally let me vote provisionally after 3 and a half hours, which in my opinion she should have suggested that option to begin with instead of turning me away the first 2 times.

The experience was very discouraging and makes me wonder how many people were turned away that didn't have a car or who had other obligations and were not able to endure the run around to cast a ballot.


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