Georgia officials launch investigation after election day chaos

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) vowed to launch an investigation into the chaos during Tuesday’s primary elections that saw long lines and confusion in parts of the state.

“The voting situation today in certain precincts in Fulton and Dekalb counties is unacceptable,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “My office has opened an investigation to determine what these counties need to do to resolve these issues before November’s election.”

New machines: Tuesday’s elections saw one of the first major tests for Georgia’s new voting systems, which were bought by the state following a federal ruling last year that required Georgia to phase out paperless voting machines by 2020.

Many voting issues on Tuesday stemmed from these new machines, provided as part of a multimillion dollar contract with Dominion Voting Systems.

“Obviously, the first time a new voting system is used there is going to be a learning curve, and voting in a pandemic only increased these difficulties,” Raffensperger acknowledged. “But every other county faced these same issues and were significantly better prepared to respond so that voters had every opportunity to vote.”

Kay Stimson, the vice president of Government Affairs at Dominion, told The Hill that the company had a “command center” in Georgia and had “teams deployed around the state” to respond to any reported issues with Dominion equipment.

Many of the reported concerns were in Fulton County, which encompasses much of central Atlanta. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) tweeted that at one point “none of the machines” in one precinct were working.

Stimson said that in Fulton County, one issue stemmed from the delivery of “poll pads” used to check voters in, and pointed to issues with “consolidating polling places last minute” due to changes from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voter suppression concerns: Raffensperger announced the investigation in the midst of strong criticism from officials including former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) that the confusion was leading to “voter suppression.”