Georgia: In a Warning for November, Voters Endure Long Lines in Georgia’s Primary Election | Alexa Corse/Wall Street Journal

Voters in Georgia’s primary election Tuesday endured long lines at some voting sites, after the state adopted new voting machines and suffered shortages of poll workers because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some voters said they waited for hours to cast a ballot, though the state had been encouraging absentee voting. State officials said many of the delays occurred because poll workers were unfamiliar with the new voting machines or were due to other administrative issues such as equipment being delivered late. The delays in Georgia underscore the challenges for election officials across the country as they respond to the pandemic, cybersecurity concerns, and other hurdles ahead of November’s general election. “For November, we need to do a much better job of planning for the tens of millions of Americans who are going to be voting in person,” said David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, who has been working with the Georgia secretary of state’s office. “We need to offer options for voters.”

Georgia: Primary elections quickly descended into chaos, with voting-machine problems, a lack of paper ballots, and hours-long lines at polling places | Grace Panetta/Business Insider

Voters throughout the metro Atlanta area faced immense difficulties voting in Georgia’s primary election on Tuesday because of widespread problems with new electronic machines malfunctioning and shortages of paper ballots. Local reporters and voters said that in many precincts in the counties in and around Atlanta, including Fulton, Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Cobb, undertrained poll workers ran into trouble getting the new voting machines to work, and polling stations didn’t have enough paper ballots for every voter to cast a provisional ballot, leading to hours-long lines. Many people didn’t get to vote at all. Georgia had sent absentee-ballot requests to every active registered voter because of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to record levels of mail-in voting. But the pandemic also meant shortages of poll workers and far fewer in-person polling places. While Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said on Monday that long lines were expected, the system experienced a meltdown on Tuesday as machines were delivered to the wrong place and officials had trouble getting them to work.

Georgia: ‘I Refuse Not to Be Heard’: Georgia in Uproar Over Voting Meltdown | Richard Fausset, Reid J. Epstein and Rick Rojas/The New York Times

Georgia’s statewide primary elections on Tuesday were overwhelmed by a full-scale meltdown of new voting systems put in place after widespread claims of voter suppression during the state’s 2018 governor’s election. Scores of new state-ordered voting machines were reported to be missing or malfunctioning, and hourslong lines materialized at polling places across Georgia. Some people gave up and left before casting a ballot, and concerns spread that the problems would disenfranchise untold voters, particularly African-Americans. Predominantly black areas experienced some of the worst problems. With Republican-leaning Georgia emerging as a possible battleground in this year’s presidential election and home to two competitive Senate races, the voting mess rattled Democratic officials and voters, with some blaming the state’s Republican governor and secretary of state for hastily instituting a new voting system without enough provisional ballots in case the voting machines did not function. “It is a disaster that was preventable,” Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who narrowly lost the disputed 2018 governor’s race, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “It is emblematic of the deep systemic issues we have here in Georgia. One of the reasons we are so insistent upon better operations is that you can have good laws, but if you have incompetent management and malfeasance, voters get hurt, and that’s what we see happening in Georgia today.”

Georgia: Georgia Betrays Its Voters Again | Charles Bethea/The New Yorker

In November of 2018, Alyssa Thys, a twenty-nine-year-old communications manager in Atlanta, waited in line for more than two hours to vote for Stacey Abrams, at her precinct in a working-class, predominantly black neighborhood. Thys, to whom I spoke at the time, called the experience “complete chaos and disorganization.” She returned to the same place, Pittman Park Recreation Center, on Tuesday, to vote in the primaries. (In the most high-profile race, seven Democrats, including Jon Ossoff, are running for the opportunity to unseat Georgia’s senior Republican senator, David Perdue, in November.) “Like, wow,” Thys, who is white, told me after another frustrating morning. “Nothing has been learned.” She’d arrived early again—at 6:45 a.m., fifteen minutes before polls opened—and there was a line “down the block,” she told me, lengthened by social distancing. A few dozen would-be voters were already queued up ahead of her. “People thought they didn’t have the correct number of machines again,” she said. As it turned out, there were more machines than two years ago—eight working machines, Thys believed, rather than the three on site in 2018. But they’re new machines, which require printing out completed paper ballots and placing them in a secured box. “They just didn’t have any of that paper that was supposed to be printed,” Thys said, “which is, like, half of the entire system meant to prevent election fraud.”

Georgia: Absentee voting embraced equally by voters of both parties | Mark NiesseGreg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

No matter their political party, Georgia voters quickly adapted to voting by mail in a primary election hindered by the coronavirus pandemic. Over 1.2 million people have already voted — about three-quarters of them on absentee ballots — according to state elections data after early voting ended Friday. Voters were closely split between Democrats and Republicans heading into election day on Tuesday.Georgians embraced voting from home, avoiding human contact at polling places. A record 943,000 voters had returned their absentee ballots through Sunday, a 2,500% increase compared with absentee-by-mail voting in the 2016 presidential primary.But the coronavirus brought problems to both in-person and absentee voting. Voters waited in line for hours Friday because of social distancing requirements, and voters were also slowed by a long ballot of candidates for president, Congress, the courts and other offices. In Fulton County, some voters reported they never received their absentee ballots after requesting them weeks beforehand. The secretary of state’s office opened an investigation into Fulton, and the voting rights group Fair Fight Action said it might go to court to ensure votes are counted.

Georgia: State gets fresh start on election security, but risks remain | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The security surrounding Georgia’s new voting system is code-named Project Beskar, a reference to impenetrable steel from “Star Wars.” Georgia election officials say the protections are strong enough to safeguard votes from hacking attempts or tampering, with upgraded voting equipment that adds a paper ballot for the first time in 18 years.But election security experts aren’t convinced. They say the system remains vulnerable because it still relies on electronics and retains a link to the internet. They fear computer-generated paper ballots will prove to be meaningless if most voters fail to check them for accuracy.Across Georgia, all voters who go to the polls to cast ballots in the June 9 primary will use the $104 million system, which features fresh touchscreens, printers, check-in tablets and tabulation servers. Old equipment has been put in storage, never to be touched by voters again. Gabriel Sterling, who oversaw the installation of the voting system, said it’s independent from any potential flaws in Georgia’s outdated electronic voting machines. Even if they had been compromised, Sterling said the old computers wouldn’t contaminate the new ones.

Georgia: Absentee ballots delayed and polls close as Georgia primary approaches | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tens of thousands of Georgia voters hadn’t yet received their absentee ballots Monday as precincts continued to close, narrowing options for voters to safely cast ballots in the state’s June 9 primary. The secretary of state’s office might ask the National Guard to help voters at precincts on election day if too many poll workers quit because they fear catching the coronavirus.The obstacles facing both absentee and in-person voters just eight days before the primary create the potential for long lines on election day and absentee ballots arriving too late to be counted. Election officials said they’re working to ensure that absentee ballots are delivered in time, though voters might have to return them in drop boxes rather than put them in the mail. Absentee ballots will be counted only if they’re received by county election offices by 7 p.m. June 9. “It’s definitely a tight time frame,” said Gabriel Sterling, the implementation manager for the secretary of state’s office. “The good thing is we have drop boxes in every metro county. It’s the safest option if you want to make sure your ballot is going to get there, or you can vote in person.”

Georgia: Case files discredit Kemp’s accusation that Democrats tried to hack Georgia election | Mark NiesseJack Gillum/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and ProPublica

It was a stunning accusation: Two days before the 2018 election for Georgia governor, Republican Brian Kemp used his power as secretary of state to open an investigation into what he called a “failed hacking attempt” of voter registration systems involving the Democratic Party. But newly released case files from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reveal that there was no such hacking attempt. The evidence from the closed investigation indicates that Kemp’s office mistook planned security tests and a warning about potential election security holes for malicious hacking. Kemp then wrongly accused his political opponents just before Election Day — a high-profile salvo that drew national media attention in one of the most closely watched races of 2018. “The investigation by the GBI revealed no evidence of damage to (the secretary of state’s office’s) network or computers, and no evidence of theft, damage, or loss of data,” according to a March 2 memo from a senior assistant attorney general recommending that the case be closed.

Georgia: Heavy absentee turnout seen in Georgia primary, but obstacles remain | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Thursday that Georgia’s absentee voting process is working, with over 600,000 ballots returned so far, though many ballots are still pending as the June 9 election day approaches. Raffensperger defended his decision to mail absentee ballot request forms to the state’s 6.9 million active voters, saying it was a necessary move to ensure Georgians are able to vote remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.“We have cut through the political rhetoric, ignored the talking heads and put you, the voter, first,” Raffensperger said during a press conference at the Capitol. “If you want to vote from the safety of your home, you can. If you prefer in person, you may.”But many challenges to the primary election remain. Ballots are still in the mail but haven’t yet been received by 39,000 Fulton County voters, leaving them little time to fill them out and return them to county election offices. Fulton didn’t clear its backlog of absentee ballot requests until Tuesday.

Georgia: Elections chief asks 1M voters to return absentee ballots | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday urged voters to return their absentee ballots in time for the June 9 primary, even as thousands of Fulton County voters are waiting for their ballots to arrive and the coronavirus forced some early voting locations to close. About 1 million voters who requested absentee ballots haven’t yet turned them in, according to state election data through Sunday. “Vote from the convenience of your own kitchen table. Take your time to do it, but get it done as soon as you can,” Raffensperger said in an interview. “Sooner better than later, because it has to be received by June 9, no later than 7 p.m., to be counted.” So far, over 551,000 voters have returned their absentee ballots, and another 77,000 voted in person during the first week of early voting. Meanwhile, Fulton County reported Monday that it had nearly cleared a large backlog of absentee ballot requests that had piled up in election office inboxes, including some requests made more than seven weeks ago.

Georgia: More Georgians voted by mail than in-person on Day 1 of early voting | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Turnout was relatively high on the first day of in-person early voting in Georgia’s primary, but even more people voted absentee Monday amid the coronavirus pandemic. Over 15,000 voters, many of them wearing masks, cast their ballots at early voting locations, according to state election data.That’s a larger turnout than on the first days of in-person voting for primaries in 2016 and 2018, but slightly lower than the start of early voting for this year’s presidential primary on March 2.Still, most Georgians preferred to vote remotely, with over 26,000 absentee ballots received by county election offices Monday. The combination of voting options could result in significant participation in the combined presidential and general primary. A record 1.46 million voters have requested absentee ballots, and many more will cast their ballots during three weeks of early voting and on election day June 9. Overall, nearly 415,000 people have voted so far, including 400,000 who submitted absentee-by-mail ballots. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is encouraging people to vote absentee and avoid human contact, but they can also choose to vote in person.

Georgia: Emergency rule allows absentee ballots to be opened early| Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Election officials can begin opening absentee ballots eight days before Georgia’s June 9 primary, according to a State Election Board rule approved Monday to deal with a deluge of mailed-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. The board voted unanimously to pass the emergency rule, which will help election officials handle record numbers of absentee ballots. In previous elections, absentee ballots couldn’t be processed until election day.Even though ballots can be opened in advance, election results in some races might not be known for several days after the primary because of the time needed to count absentee ballots.It will take much longer to scan and count absentee ballots than it would on Georgia’s new in-person voting system, which combines touchscreens and printed-out paper ballots. So far, over 1.4 million voters have requested absentee ballots. Polls opened Monday for three weeks of in-person early voting. “For this once-in-a-lifetime unprecedented emergency, this regulation painstakingly attempts to balance transparency and security,” State Election Board member Matt Mashburn said during the meeting held via teleconference.

Georgia: ‘Social Distancing & Sanitizing’: Georgia Opens Early Voting | Ben Nadler/Associated Press

Wait in your car until your group is called. Stand on the painted circle so you don’t get too close to other voters in line. (Please) Wear a mask. Everything you touch will be sanitized. Those are some of the new procedures Georgians were greeted with Monday as they participated in the first day of in-person early voting for the state’s June 9 primaries with the coronavirus pandemic still raging. In metro Atlanta’s Cobb County, Election Director Janine Eveler said new procedures and guidelines have “slowed things down considerably, and people are having to wait.” She said that voters faced wait times of over an hour Monday morning. Eveler said safety procedures implemented in Cobb include having people wait in their car until called up to the line in groups, maintaining 6-foot spacing in line and only allowing a small number of people into the voting room. In addition, an ongoing shortage of poll workers means the county is down to a single early voting location, when normally two are in operation for early voting’s first week.

Georgia: Amid budget cuts, Georgia pays $432,000 a year to keep old Diebold voting machines in storage | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As Georgia is preparing for deep budget cuts, the state government is paying $432,000 a year to store 30,000 voting machines that will never be used again. An attorney for the secretary of state’s office now says it will likely go to court to try to destroy the obsolete voting machines, which are locked in a warehouse because of a lawsuit over election security.The 18-year-old touchscreens, called direct-recording electronic voting machines, were replaced this year by a voting system that uses new touchscreens and also prints out paper ballots.“Continuing to preserve the DREs at a significant cost to Georgia taxpayers in times of national crisis for state budgets across the country is wasteful and unnecessary,” according to a May 9 letter from Bryan Tyson, an attorney for the state, to plaintiffs in the lawsuit.Negotiations to dispose of the outdated voting equipment have stalled in federal court.The Georgia voters behind the lawsuit want to preserve some of the old voting machines for inspection, allowing them to find out whether the machines were infected by viruses or malware, which they allege could have spread to the state’s replacement voting system. The secretary of state’s office has said the new voting system is secure and independent from its previous machinery.

Georgia: Judge rules against delaying Georgia’s June 9 primary again | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit that attempted to postpone Georgia’s June 9 primary election because of the coronavirus pandemic. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten leaves the primary date unchanged, with in-person early voting set to begin Monday.Batten wrote that elected Georgia officials have the authority to decide how to run elections — not the courts.“The framers of the Constitution did not envision a primary role for the courts in managing elections, but instead reserved election management to the legislatures,” Batten wrote in a 12-page order after a hearing earlier in the day. Lawyers for several Georgia voters had pleaded for a postponement of the primary, saying it would have allowed more time to vote by mail and prepare for in-person voting. But attorneys for state election officials said everyone will be able to vote safely, and the primary must go on even during the coronavirus.

Georgia: Tech glitches keep Atlanta voters waiting for mail ballots | Ben Nadler/Associated Press

The election director for Georgia’s most populous county said Thursday that technical issues have prevented officials from processing absentee ballot applications sent in by email, causing a backlog of thousands of pending applications ahead of the June 9 primaries. Voters in Fulton County, covering Atlanta and its northern and southern suburbs, have complained of weeks of waiting with little or no information. The issue highlights growing pains Georgia counties are experiencing from the state’s big shift toward absentee voting by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic. Election Director Richard Barron made the remarks at a video conference meeting of the Fulton County election board. He said that while the county was largely caught up with ballot applications sent through the mail, processing emailed applications has caused “a lot of difficulty.”

Georgia: Precincts close before primary because of coronavirus | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Some churches, senior centers and fire stations are shutting their doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving Georgia voters with fewer places to cast their ballots in the June 9 primary. Polling places have closed across Georgia, but especially in Fulton County, where more than 30 locations told election officials they’re unwilling to host voters on election day. The loss of precincts leaves fewer options for voters, increasing the danger of groups gathering to vote in fewer places. While nearly 1.3 million people have requested absentee ballots, in-person voting must remain available during three weeks of early voting starting May 18 and on election day June 9, according to state law. Voting locations in churches are the most vulnerable. Churches normally serve as 35% of the state’s precincts, but many of them have closed to both parishioners and the public to help prevent the spread of the coroanvirus, according to a statewide analysis of polling places by the Georgia News Lab, an investigative reporting partnership among Georgia universities and GPB News. An additional 27% of precincts are located in schools or municipal buildings, which are more likely to remain open for voting.

Georgia: Lawsuit says Georgia ballots postmarked by election day should count | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal lawsuit says ballots postmarked by election day should be counted, a change that could save thousands of votes from being rejected during the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit challenges a Georgia law that requires absentee ballots to arrive in county election offices by 7 p.m. on election day. Ballots that show up late are discarded, as in 2018 when about 3,800 ballots weren’t counted because they were received after election day, according to state election data.Filed by the New Georgia Project, a voter registration group, the lawsuit came Friday as the number of Georgia voters who have requested absentee ballots for the June 9 primary rose to a new high of nearly 1.3 million.The lawsuit also asks a judge to order free ballot postage, allow groups like the New Georgia Project to turn in ballots for voters, and require better notification of voters whose absentee ballot requests are rejected.Absentee voting restrictions should be lifted, said Marc Elias, an attorney for the New Georgia Project. “That has a potential to lead to widespread disenfranchisement,” Elias said. “The people oftentimes most impacted by that are young voters and minority voters.”

Georgia: Secretary of State ‘fed up’ with storing old voting machines | Claire Simms/FOX 5 Atlanta

As state leaders look for ways to slash their budgets in the wake of the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger finds one line item in his budget particularly troubling. According to the Secretary of State’s Office, they currently pay $36,000 per month, which adds up to $432,000 per year, to warehouse the state’s now retired electronic voting machines. “I’m tired of it and I’m fed up and I think taxpayers should be fed up,” Sec. Raffensperger said Friday. The old hardware lies at the center of an ongoing legal battle between the state and several voting and election transparency groups, who sued claiming the machines, and thus Georgians’ votes, were not secure. In an order last November, a United States District Court judge directed the state to “preserve all GEMS servers, DREs, memory cards, AccuVote scanners, and Express Poll books until further order of the Court in the event a forensic examination is deemed necessary at some point for purposes of this litigation.”

Georgia: Judge upholds postage requirement on Georgia ballots for June primary | Maya T. Prabhu/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge ruled that requiring postage on mailed absentee ballots for the June primary is not an unconstitutional poll tax on Georgia voters, but she said she will consider changes in future elections. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg said that removing the postage requirement would be difficult for the state to implement so close to the June 9 primary and confusing to voters who had already received their absentee ballots.The lawsuit by Black Voters Matter, a group founded in 2016 to increase African American voter registration and turnout, sued Secretary of State Brad Raffersperger after postage was not included.The group asked the judge to rule that the cost of voting by mail creates a barrier for those unwilling to risk buying stamps or voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic. Attorneys for Raffensperger said the cost of a stamp won’t stop anyone from voting. Attorneys for the organization suggested the state include postage stamps or business reply mail stickers, establish a website where voters could request a paid return envelope or place a secure drop box location at every post office in the state. Totenberg said she will consider whether the state should waive the postage requirement in future elections.

Georgia: Voters Ask Judge to Postpone Primary to Implement COVID-19 Safety Plan | R. Robin McDonald /Law.com Daily Report

An organization dedicated to election integrity and five women voters have asked a federal judge to delay Georgia’s primary for three weeks to implement a detailed COVID-19 safety plan. Plaintiffs lawyers asked District Judge Timothy Batten in a motion filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for an injunction postponing the primary, which also includes nonpartisan elections for the state’s judges, until June 30 in order to implement a comprehensive 18-point plan designed by the plaintiffs. The state already twice postponed the primary, which was originally scheduled for March 24. The pandemic safety plan proposed by the plaintiffs would allow in-person voting with significant safety requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and would correct a number of problems associated with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s push for a robust use of absentee ballots. But it would also largely replace statewide use of a new computer voting system that includes both a touchscreen and a paper ballot component exclusively with paper ballots. U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten has given the secretary of state until May 12 to respond.

Georgia: ‘This … is real to us’: Poll workers prepare for voters in pandemic | Nicole Sadek, Mary Margaret Stewart and Ada Wood/The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Georgia elections officials face a daunting question as they prepare for early voting in the June 9 primary in the midst of a global pandemic: What do they do if a voter appears ill? “I’ve asked for guidance from the state as to what we’re supposed to do if a manager notices anyone in line with symptoms,” Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron said at a recent elections board meeting. “I still haven’t heard back.”The Georgia News Lab and GPB News asked dozens of county supervisors how they would handle such a situation. None reported receiving any guidance from state elections officials as of publication, leaving local officials to determine how to balance health and safety concerns due to COVID-19 against the fundamental right to vote.A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the office is actively working with counties to develop best practices for polling locations.“Just like other essential services that have continued to operate during this time, in-person voting will need to incorporate both social distancing and increased cleaning,” Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said. “Exact measures will look different depending on the specific polling place but election officials should be prepared to limit the number of people in a polling place at a time.”

Georgia: Elections Officials Grapple With Potential COVID-19 Illness At Polls | Stephen Fowler/WJCT

Georgia elections officials face a daunting question as they prepare for early voting in the June 9 primary in the midst of a global pandemic: What do they do if a voter appears ill? “I’ve asked for guidance from the state as to what we’re supposed to do if a manager notices anyone in line with symptoms,” Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron said at a recent elections board meeting. “I still haven’t heard back.” GPB News and the Georgia News Lab asked dozens of county supervisors how they would handle such a situation. None reported receiving any guidance from the state elections officials as of publication, leaving local officials to determine how to balance health and safety concerns due to COVID-19 against the fundamental right to vote. A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the office is actively working with counties to develop best practices for polling locations.

Georgia: Ballots mailed to Georgia voters with incorrect instructions | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia election officials said Tuesday they will correct absentee ballot instructions that erroneously told voters to insert ballots into envelopes that no longer exist. Instructions mailed with future absentee ballots will tell voters that ballots should be placed inside a folded piece of paper labeled “Official absentee ballot,” which replaced an inner envelope that secured ballots in previous elections.The inner envelope protected the secrecy of ballots so they couldn’t be matched with voters’ information printed on the outer envelope. Without the inner envelope in Georgia’s June 9 primary, a county election worker could see how someone voted after opening the outer envelope.Absentee ballots will be counted as long as they’re received by the time polls close on election day, said Gabriel Sterling, implementation manager for Georgia’s voting system. Absentee ballots must be returned in signed and dated envelopes, which are still included. The secretary of state’s office only learned that absentee ballot packets wouldn’t include inner envelopes when voters began receiving them late last week, Sterling said.

Georgia: Absentee ballots mailed without an inner envelope | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Absentee ballots arriving in Georgia voters’ mailboxes now come with just one return envelope instead of two. State election officials eliminated the inner envelope, which secured ballots in another layer of packaging. The inner envelope has been replaced with a white folded piece of paper that says, “Official absentee ballot. Ballot must be enclosed.”The secretary of state’s office confirmed the change Monday — after voters began receiving absentee ballots last week.With just one envelope to open, county election officials will be able to process ballots more quickly, said Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs. Record numbers of Georgia voters are expected to mail their ballots for the June 9 primary after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent absentee ballot request forms to the state’s 6.9 million active voters. More than 825,000 people had returned their absentee ballot requests through Sunday.

Georgia: Judge considers whether Georgia ballot postage cost is a poll tax | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge appeared skeptical Friday about ordering Georgia’s government to cover the postage cost of returning primary election ballots in a case arguing that it’s an unconstitutional poll tax. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg was deciding whether to revoke the requirement for voters to pay for a 55-cent stamp on their absentee ballots, which are already being mailed to voters and tell them to “place sufficient postage here” before returning them for the state’s June 9 primary.“How do you do this without confusing people? How do you do this without creating a disparity in the voting process if some people are given stamps now when other hadn’t?” Totenberg asked during a four-hour court hearing held online via a Zoom videoconference. “There’s a host of problems.”Totenberg didn’t immediately issue a ruling Friday in the lawsuit, which says voters shouldn’t have to pay to cast their ballots. The lawsuit by Black Voters Matter, a group founded in 2016 to increase African American voter registration and turnout, asks the judge to rule that the cost of voting by mail creates a barrier for those unwilling to risk buying stamps or voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic. “The point is that folks shouldn’t have to put themselves at risk,” Cliff Albright, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said during the hearing. “Requiring this postage stamp creates a barrier to certain communities, low-income communities.”

Georgia: State may spend election relief money on drop boxes and safety gear | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia is slated to receive nearly $11 million in federal coronavirus relief funds for elections this year, money that could be used for protective gear, high-speed ballot scanners and absentee ballot drop boxes. Election officials are also planning to buy sanitation supplies and equipment that can quickly determine voter intent on absentee ballots that are in question, wrote Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a funding request letter to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. In addition, the state will reimburse counties for emergency election expenses.“Our team is putting voters first,” said Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs. “This funding will allow us to beef up security and delivery of absentee ballots, and provide a safer in-person voting experience for voters and poll workers alike.”The money comes from $2 trillion — including $400 million for elections — for coronavirus relief that was approved by Congress on March 26 and signed by President Donald Trump the next day. Georgia’s share of the federal money must be matched by $2.1 million in state funds, bringing its total election relief amount to about $13 million.The secretary of state’s office has already spent millions of dollars to encourage remote voting in the June 9 primary, sending absentee ballot request forms to Georgia’s 6.9 million active voters. That program costs over $3 million, plus between $1.88 and $2.38 per absentee ballot mailed, depending on the size of each ballot.

Georgia: Fulton County elections employee dies of COVID-19 before Georgia primary | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Fulton County elections employee has died from COVID-19 and a voter registration manager was hospitalized, slowing the county’s ability to handle a flood of absentee ballot requests for Georgia’s June 9 primary. Beverly Walker, a registration officer, died April 15 at age 62, said Fulton Elections Director Richard Barron.Registration Chief Ralph Jones also suffered coughing and shortness of breath, symptoms associated with COVID-19. Jones was treated at a hospital for low oxygen levels and was released after less than a day.The Fulton elections office closed for two days last week for deep cleaning and decontamination, Barron said.About 113,000 Fulton voters have submitted absentee ballot request forms so they can vote by mail, Barron said, but just 10,738 of them had been processed through Wednesday.“With this mortality rate, this is really nothing to play around with,” Barron said. “What are we going to do if a voter is in line that’s exhibiting symptoms? Are we allowed to use non-contact thermometers to take people’s temperature? Are we allowed to send someone home if they’re in line with a fever?” Barron said further guidance is needed to ensure the safety of voters and poll workers.

Georgia: Lawsuit seeks another Georgia primary delay amid coronavirus | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal lawsuit is seeking emergency changes to Georgia’s June 9 primary election — including another postponement and a switch to hand-marked paper ballots — because of the health risk from the coronavirus. The lawsuit, filed Monday by an election integrity group and five voters, said Georgia’s new voting touchscreens could spread the illness to voters at precincts.Though unprecedented numbers of voters are expected to mail their ballots this election, in-person voting locations must remain open, according to state law. More than 586,000 voters had requested absentee ballots through Monday.A judge should delay Georgia’s primary by three weeks, abandon touchscreens, allow curbside voting, create mobile “pop up” early-voting locations, permit vote centers on election day and provide protective equipment to poll workers, the lawsuit said.