Cobb Elections officials ‘shipping thousands’ of absentee ballots for last-minute applicants

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Cobb County Elections Office is working with the U.S. Postal Service and delivery companies to get thousands of absentee ballots to voters before the presidential election.

According to county officials, there was a surge of last-minute absentee ballot applications.

“We want to maintain voter trust by being transparent about the situation,” Board of Elections Chairwoman Tori Silas. “We are taking every possible step to get these ballots to the voters who requested them. Unfortunately, we were unprepared for the surge in requests and lacked the necessary equipment to process the ballots quickly.”

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To make sure that the more than 3,000 ballots requested by the deadline last week are delivered to voters, election workers will be sending them via USPS Express Mail or UPS Overnight Delivery by Friday morning.

Elections officials said the number of absentee ballot requests in the county had increased from 440 per day to 750 per day last week, with another 985 submitted on the Friday deadline for ballot requests.

In addition to sending them through overnight delivery, Cobb officials said the absentee ballots will include prepaid express return envelopes to make sure they can be returned in time for Election Day’s 7 p.m. deadline on Tuesday.

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“After our vendor’s final run on Friday, we needed to utilize our in-house equipment for the final shipment of ballots, but the equipment was not working properly,” said Elections Director Tate Fall. “By the time we got the equipment online, the deadline for mailing the ballots had passed, prompting us to work with the US Postal Service and UPS to take extraordinary measures. Our team has been working around the clock to get the ballots out.”

Voters who want to submit their absentee ballots to drop-off boxes at Elections Headquarters in Cobb County will also have additional time to get them in the box, with extended ours on the following days at the Roswell Street location in Marietta:

• Saturday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Sunday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Monday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

On Friday morning, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Georgia, and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit in Cobb County asking a judge to extend the absentee ballot submission deadline, for completed ballots, to Nov. 8 due to the delay in delivering all of the ballots requested by the deadline.

“More than 3,000 Cobb county voters have fulfilled their responsibility by requesting absentee ballots on time,” Poy Winichakul, senior staff attorney, SPLC said in a statement. “We urge Cobb Elections to take immediate action to resolve this issue, ensuring all voters receive their absentee ballots promptly so they can make their voices heard in this critical election.”

For voters who still have not gotten their ballots by Friday, in-person advance voting or voting on the actual Election Day at their assigned precinct are still options.

Anyone with questions about the absentee ballots can call the Cobb Elections Department at 770-528-2581.

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