More than 7,000 voter registration applications in metro Atlanta still hadn’t been processed as of Monday, nearly two weeks after the deadline to register to vote and one week since in-person early voting began.
County election officials said they expect the backlog to be cleared this week, but it takes time to review each voter registration form. New voters whose registrations haven’t been processed can cast provisional ballots that will be counted if their information is verified, or they can wait at early-voting sites for election officials to complete their registrations. Registration forms were awaiting processing Monday in Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties, according to ProGeorgia, a nonprofit organization focused on voter engagement and civic participation. Clayton and Gwinnett counties had processed all their voter registration forms.
Leaders of several advocacy groups said all registrations should have been processed before in-person early voting started statewide on Oct. 15. The voter registration deadline was Oct. 9.
“These voters were able to meet the deadline of being able to vote on time, and they should be able to cast a regular ballot,” said Jerry Gonzalez, the executive director for the Georgia Association for Latino Elected Officials. “Counties should have been prepared to efficiently process the forms as necessary.”
Full Article: Georgia Election 2018: Backlog of voter registrations pending.