It looks like Georgia is trying to become the new Florida. As the election approaches, voting and registration processes throughout the country look suspect. The latest problem is in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
In Gwinnett County, Over 19,700 flawed absentee ballots were mailed out. Of these, about 10,000 have been returned.
After receiving the completed ballots back, it was discovered that Optical scanning machines cannot read the votes because the circle next to a candidate’s name is misshapen and too thick. Although the problem is not visible to the naked eye, it has the potential to invalidate thousands of votes.
Amazingly, Georgia law does not require the absentee ballots to be tested until three days before the election. Fortunately, Lynn Ledford, director of Voter Registration and Elections for Gwinnett County, decided to test the ballots three weeks ahead of the election. That was when the problem was discovered.
The elections department now plans to transfer the votes by hand onto ballots that can be optically scanned. County spokesperson Joe Sorenson explained the process:
“(Election workers) are going to have to take the bad ballots, take a look at what each choice is, and mark that choice for the second ballot. There will be two sets of eyes on each ballot.”
“It’s going to be a sequestered process. Those election workers will not be able to leave or have contact with other people during the process.”
Phones, recording equipment and other media will be banned. Sheriff’s deputies will be on duty for security. Sorenson expects it will take 200-300 people to conduct the voting transfers.
This onerous process is both costly and laden with potential mistakes or outright fraud. It begs for a simple and obvious solution — hand count the ballots instead of transferring the votes. It can only be assumed that state law prohibits a hand count. However, there must be some emergency exceptions available to avoid the ridiculous solution of hand-copying votes to the equally ridiculous problem of a poorly conceived ballot.
