The Fulton County Board of Elections as well as elections director Richard Barron remain under intense criticism due to the Nov. 7th final county election results being posted at 1:41 am the next day. For perspective, entire states counting election returns posted results between 10 and 11 pm. In any event, the board and Barron are (again) promising reforms.
One board member, speaking on background, notes that current law helps “create this environment” and pointed to early votes not being able to be counted until one hour after the polls close. In response, Barron plans to ask the county attorney for permission to treat early votes, which took over two hours to process, like absentee ballots which would assist a faster count.
In the city of Atlanta, located in a large chuck of Fulton County, the polls didn’t close until 8 p.m. due to some 1800s law. So the 2018 state Legislature would have to fix that issue along with the early vote problem.
“We need poll workers who are computer savvy, who know how to process things efficiently,” Barron says. His honesty is appreciated but many wonder why this wasn’t addressed after the last election cycle when there were identical problems causing late returns being reported.
Barron further admitted that a group of results cards were dropped in a bin for cards that had already been uploaded, and they weren’t discovered until after midnight— when someone questioned why the precincts had not yet been counted.
We are now told by insiders that there will be a “retirement” of various poll managers and workers who aren’t “computer savvy.” Barron says he wants more “computer savvy” volunteer poll workers to expedite the process. And he is urging them to volunteer!
