Boyce defends Cobb Elections, blasts Ga. Secretary of State

Cobb budget town hall, Mike Boyce, Cobb public safety bonus, Cobb millage rate

Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce had some harsh words this week for the Georgia Secretary of State and strongly defended the county’s elections chief as absentee ballot counting from Tuesday’s primary elections continues into the weekend.

In his weekly newsletter issued Friday, Boyce modified comments he made earlier this week that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger should resign over his handling of the elections, a subject that’s drawn national attention.

Voting issues included new machines that didn’t work properly in some precincts, including several in Cobb County, and that caused long voter lines that lasted for hours in certain areas, especially in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

Raffensperger blamed county elections offices for a lack of staffing and training, which caused a furor at the local level.

He’s a Republican, as is Boyce, who won 67 percent of the in-person vote during Tuesday’s GOP primary. In November, Boyce will face Democratic commissioner Lisa Cupid.

“I have since sent the Secretary of State an email stating if he would own up to his office’s responsibility for the problems, and work toward a solution to prevent them from happening again, I would reassess my position,” Boyce said in his newsletter.

He especially defended the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration and director Janine Eveler. Shifting blame to her and her staff, Boyce, said, “is not warranted. They have all been true public servants and are continuing to do so. This endorsement comes from watching all that they have been doing over many months to prepare for this election. We should be optimistic that a record number of people voted in this primary and did so by absentee balloting. Every one of these absentee ballots has to be validated and scanned. It takes time.”

Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said by midday Friday 73,000 absentee ballots had been counted, and another 33,000 to 36,000 are still left to be counted. On Thursday, the uncounted number was more than 61,000.

The record absentee ballots were the result of COVID-19, and Cavitt estimates that 109,000 absentee ballots will be counted—which represents around a fifth of the 518,000 registered voters in Cobb County. He also said 1,250 provisional ballots also are being counted.

(You can monitor the counting by clicking here.)

Among the local races hanging in the balance of absentee voting is the Republican primary for District 2 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which includes some of East Cobb. Fitz Johnson leads with 35.7 percent of the vote, followed by Andy Smith with 32.5 percent and Kevin Nicholas with with 31 percent.

All three candidates are separated by less than 500 votes. An Aug. 11 runoff awaits for the top two finishers, but primary results won’t be certified until next Friday.

Boyce said it wasn’t a surprise that given all the circumstances there would be election-day problems. “But I have learned that once you have to defend a position to the public you generally have lost the argument. So we are going to own up to the problems and fix them.”

Boyce added that November’s elections—which include two U.S. Senate races in Georgia as well as a presidential contest—will attract even more voters “and we can expect similar circumstances.

“As much as I believe the current system is broken, I don’t see it being replaced or repaired in a significant way before November,” he said in his newsletter, which is distributed to Cobb citizens. “What I can assure you is that the elections team is taking the necessary measures to ensure that your vote is protected and counted.”