Over protests from poll workers and conservative activists, the Cobb Board of Elections on Monday voted to allow one Sunday of early voting in the 2022 general election.
After hearing lengthy public comments both for and against the measure, the five-member board voted to have early voting on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 12-4 p.m. at the Cobb Elections new office on Roswell Street.
The motion also included providing signage at the former offices on Whitlock Avenue to direct voters to the new location, which opened last week near the Big Chicken.
The vote was 4-1, and moments later, a woman who shouted disapproval was asked to be removed from the meeting room.
“I’ve said it many times,” said Tori Silas, the chairwoman of the elections board, “we’re not going to do that.”
Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler proposed a three-week early voting schedule (at right) that runs from Oct. 17-Nov. 4 and includes the East Cobb Government Service Center and the Tim D. Lee Senior Center.
Election Day is Nov. 8.
Georgia’s elections law that was passed last year allows for up to two Sundays of early voting, at the discretion of county elections boards.
Proponents of Sunday voting say it will give them flexibility with work travel schedules and caregiving roles.
Cobb resident Lisa Thomas cited both in urging the board to adopt Sunday voting. Sunday is one of the few days of the week her husband, who travels frequently out of the country on business, is home “and there are no meetings.”
She’s also a caregiver for her mother in law, and needs someone to watch her while she votes.
But Cobb resident Bill Allen, who’s been a poll worker, said via a virtual comment period that “there’s ample time to vote” in advance and that “Sunday voting is not necessary.”
He said Cobb Elections is already understaffed and he adamantly said he would not work on Sunday.
Claudia Falk, an area supervisor for Cobb Elections who’s hired and recruited poll workers, said staffing early voting has become a “nightmare” and expanding those hours would be “a bigger nightmare.”
“We’re all tired, we’re all stressed,” she said during the public comment period. “We need to step back and give ourselves time to build strong teams to ensure the integrity and honesty of the elections process.”
Eveler showed slides indicating that Sunday early voting in Fulton and Gwinnett counties had the lowest figures of any days of the week.
“With our reduced number of resources, we need to put those resources where you can take advantage of the most voters,” Eveler said.
She was asked by Silas to provide information on the possibility of Sunday voting at the main location. Eveler said a total of 38 poll workers would be required, costing the county $4,765 in personnel costs.
Eveler proposed extending existing early Saturday hours, but the motion that the board passed did not include that option.
Sunday voting is a priority of Fair Fight Georgia, a voting access political action committee created by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
What it calls its “gold standards of early voting” also includes 7-days a week voting from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and expanded early voting locations.
Some speakers spoke in favor of those measures, including Lisa Cunningham, a Democrat who’s running for a Georgia House seat in North Cobb, who advocates 17 early voting spots.
The Cobb elections board adopted Eveler’s request to have 13 early voting locations, as well as the 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekday schedule and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours on two Saturdays.
Salleigh Grubbs, the head of the Cobb Republican Party, said that “Cobb is a target of Fair Fight and the extreme radical left” and “if you vote for Sunday voting” and expand early voting locations, “you’re showing your allegiance for Fair Fight.”
East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher, echoed those comments, saying Fair Fight interests have been pushing for Sunday voting in Cobb when it wasn’t being proposed.
“It’s not a legitimate request,” she said.
But the board’s vice chairwoman, Jessica Brooks, an appointee of the Cobb Democratic Party, made the motion to include Sunday voting, although she didn’t explain her reasons.
The issue of absentee ballot drop boxes also was raised. The new Georgia elections law allows only one drop box per 100,000 people as well as one at a county’s main elections office.
Cobb’s maximum is six drop boxes, including one at the East Cobb Government Service Center. The law permits drop boxes to be open only during early voting hours.
The best drop box there is, said East Cobb resident Pamela Reardon, is by going “to the end of your driveway” and putting an absentee ballot in the mail.
She proposes getting rid of them altogether, and board member Pat Gartland, an appointee of the Cobb GOP, agreed.
“You can mail it in,” he said. “We don’t need drop boxes.”
Gartland was the only vote against the motion by Brooks. His earlier motion to adopt Eveler’s proposal as is failed for a lack a of a second.
Of the other elections board members, Silas and assistant secretary Steven Bruning were appointed by the Cobb legislative delegation–which has a one-member Democratic majority–and secretary Jennifer Mosbacher was appointed by Democratic Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
For more information about Cobb Elections, click here.
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- East Cobb News Politics & Elections page
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