Cobb Elections: More than 1K absentee ballots never mailed

Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler said that 1,046 absentee ballots requested by Cobb voters were never mailed because elections workers failed to upload ballot information to a mailing machine.

Those procedures were not followed on two days in what Eveler called a “human error.”

Absentee ballots must be received at the Cobb Elections office by 7 p.m. Tuesday to be counted.

“Last call” absentee ballots also can be hand-delivered to several Cobb library branches from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, including the East Cobb and Mountain View branches.

A release sent by Cobb government Saturday afternoon said that absentee ballots were overnighted to 83 out-of-state addresses of voters who didn’t get those ballots and included pre-paid overnight return envelopes.

Another 194 residents had overnighted absentee ballots that they requested, and 271 other residents in that group cancelled their request and voted during the early voting period that ended Friday, the Cobb release said

The other 498 residents identified, the Cobb release said, “are urged to vote in person on election day.”

The Cobb release said Cobb Elections is attempting to contact them by phone or e-mail to inform them of the issue and direct them to their correct voting precincts.

The errors were discovered after voters who had requested absentee ballots but not received them contacted the Cobb Elections office.

Early voting ended on Friday, with a record of nearly 175,000 Cobb in-person votes cast.

Eveler wrote a note explaining the situation to the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, a five-member appointed body, saying that “I am sorry that this office let these voters down. Many of the absentee staff have been averaging 80 or more hours per week, and they are exhausted. Still, that is no excuse for such a critical error.”

Tori Silas, the chairwoman of the elections board, said in the Cobb statement that “I am very disappointed that we have placed these voters in a position where they may not have an opportunity to cast their ballots in this general election.”

She pointed to the reduced time for absentee ballots to be requested and returned under a new Georgia elections law and staff turnover in the Cobb Elections office.

“With only three days until election day, we are constrained in what we can do,” Silas said. “That being the case, we are taking every possible step, notwithstanding those constraints, to ensure these voters have an opportunity to cast their ballots.”

As early voting got underway earlier this month, Cobb Elections discovered that 1,112 voters registered in the Sandy Plains 1 precinct in East Cobb were incorrectly given ballots to vote in the Cobb Board of Education Post 4 race.

They live in Post 5, and Eveler said 111 of those voters cast ballots that cannot be changed.

That race features Republican incumbent David Chastain and Democrat Catherine Pozniak in what’s become an intense campaign.

It’s unclear what might happen if the margin of difference in that election is less than 111 votes, but the results could be challenged and a new election could be called.

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