Voters report nearly 3 hour wait at Stockbridge polling location

By Rachel Aragon

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    ATLANTA, Georgia (WANF) — Early voting is now underway in Georgia for the Nov. 8 midterm election, but there is already trouble at the polls for some voters in Henry County.

People waited in line for hours Monday in Stockbridge.

“About three hours,” one voter told Atlanta News First after casting her ballot Monday. “I didn’t expect this. I thought I was going to be in and out,” the voter said.

The long line wrapped around Merle Manders Conference Center polling location.

“I stood in line over an hour just to receive this,” said another voter.

A handful of Stockbridge voters were confused why they were handed a form that read, “Application For In-Person Absentee Ballot.”

“A lady came out and said why are we filling out an application for in-person absentee ballot and I started thinking we’re here” one voter told Atlanta News First.

Some voters were told while waiting to cast their ballots that there were issues with printing.

“There was some kind of issue with a printer being down and they explained that while we were waiting in line and that’s why it was so long,” one voter told Atlanta News First

Atlanta News First asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is also running for re-election, if these polling problems are happening elsewhere in Georgia.

“That’s an isolated incident to that location,” he said. “We’re not hearing about issues in other parts of the state on the first day.”

Raffensperger told Atlanta News First his office would look into the issue in Stockbridge.

Atlanta News First reached out to Henry County about the issues voters were reporting.

Public Information Director Melissa Robinson said in an email in part:

“I understand that there were some technical issues this morning for early voting, however they were quickly resolved. Although there was minimum disruption this morning, the Elections and Registration Department take very seriously residents right to vote.”

To ensure all goes smoothly, the state is stressing just how important poll workers will be in this election.

“We do expect strong turnout so the counties have tried to bump up how many poll workers they have, just in anticipation of the strong voter turnout,” said Secretary Raffensperger.

This week, the Merle Manders Conference Center polling location is scheduled to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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