New details emerge about Gwinnett's election issues as legislators raise questions

“Using a company for delivery provides more drivers and eliminates the need to coordinate truck rental,” county spokesman Joe Sorenson said. “The late delivery of the equipment on June 9, the first Election Day the new delivery system was implemented, was a result of equipment staging issues and coordination issues between Elections workers and the trucking company.”

County officials have said there were issues with equipment still not having been delivered at 16 voting precincts in the county when polls opened on Tuesday morning, but another list distributed by state Rep. Donna McCleod suggested as many as 28 precincts experienced issues.

Several precincts had not received any voting machine equipment when the polls opened, but there were also reports of issues, such as machines not having printers to print completed ballots or not having scanners to process completed ballots.

“Some of the issues involved the amount of equipment that could be loaded onto trucks, how the equipment was staged for delivery in the warehouse, planning for the most efficient delivery routes and being able to communicate with the drivers while they were on their routes,” Sorenson said.

Those issues prompted eight state representatives from Gwinnett’s legislative delegation to demand answers from the county’s elections board on Thursday.

In a letter to the board, the legislators — all Democrats — raised nearly a dozen questions about what happened, including: how voters who put absentee by mail ballots in drop boxes can guarantee their votes are counted; what the timeframe is for getting absentee ballots counted; clarification on whether voters whose precincts did not have voting machines when they arrived Tuesday received provisional or emergency ballots; how many provisional or emergency ballots were cast; and whether the names of voters who cast provisional or emergency ballots will be released so community groups can notify them if they need to do anything else to ensure their ballots are counted.

The legislators who signed the letter include Reps. Jasmine Clark, Sam Park, Gregg Kennard, Donna McLeod, Dewey McClain, Beth Moore, Karen Bennett and Pedro Marin.

“Conducting an election during a pandemic, while also employing new machines, is no small feat and it is fair to say that it was inevitable that some issues would arise,” the legislators wrote. “Nonetheless, it is our duty, as servant leaders of the community, to ensure that trust and confidence in the voting process is maintained.”

Sorenson told the Daily Post on Wednesday that elections staff are expected to be finished counting ballots “late this week.”

County officials are now planning to make changes to avoid a repeat of what happened Tuesday. There are at least two more elections taking place this year: the primary runoff in August and the general election in November.

“To resolve the equipment delivery issue for the remaining 2020 elections, the Elections Division will change the way they stage the equipment prior to delivery and they will work with the trucking company to modify the delivery plan, including adding a third delivery day for facilities that agree to the change,” Sorenson said.