GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Tuesday was another record day for early voting: More than 111,000 Georgians voted on the second day of early voting. And once again, many people faced long lines, with some waiting up to 8 hours.
That brings the two-day total for advance voting in Georgia to 241,706. Nearly 500,000 absentee ballots have also been returned.
For day three, officials are working to cut down on the lines by adding more voting locations.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spoke Wednesday about some of the problems at the polls, including bandwidth issues that slowed down check-in voters.
“We’re working on in today. And we’ll be continuing to revisit that. It’s not just what we have now but also week two, week three the numbers increase we want to make sure we have additional capacity to handle what we’re projecting,” Raffensperger said.
I asked @GaSecofState when the “bandwidth issue” slowing check in will be fixed - he says they were working late into night and expect expanded capacity by end of the week
— Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) October 14, 2020
Channel 2′s Darryn Moore spotted several voters in line around 5 a.m. Wednesday at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections office in Lawrenceville.
Voters in the county told Channel 2 Action News that are prepared to wait hours in line but hope it won’t take that long.
“Even if it takes five, six hours, I’m going to be out here,” said voter Tony Matthew Cook.
[Georgia breaks record for first day of early voting -- while voters wait in line late into night]
But not all voting location had hours-long waits.
At George Pierce Park in Gwinnett County, voters waited in line 45 minutes to cast their ballots.
“I think it’s going to be like this every day, and I want to make sure I vote,” said voter Celia McCarty.
[UPLOAD: Post your photos of early voting in your area here]
County leaders added more voting sites this year for a total of nine locations, including the county fairgrounds.
Georgia’s top elections official is also offering more voting machines for Gwinnett and Cobb counties.
[COUNTY-BY-COUNTY: Where can I early vote in north Georgia?]
“If they can add additional equipment, that would be one thing and if they can’t just because of size of the location, then take a look at opening additional precincts,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Cobb County election officials are taking his advice and will add more voting machines and will open two more polling locations next week.
Cox Media Group
