UPDATED at 6 p.m.: Voting will be extended 30 minutes to 7:30 p.m. at All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody, DeKalb election officials have announced.
Officials in DeKalb are dealing with Election Day issues scattered around the county, including reports of voters having trouble casting ballots at three precincts and a fire alarm at another.
DeKalb elections Director Maxine Daniels told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this afternoon she was looking into concerns at Rock Chapel Elementary in Lithonia that some voters have been told they did not have proper proof of citizenship, as first reported by ProPublica's Electionland project. Those voters by law are allowed to vote using a provisional or "challenge" ballot.
Also in Lithonia, some seniors have reportedly been inconvenienced at Marbut Elementary because the area of the school used for voting was changed and they are having to walk farther to the new area.
“My understanding was the principal moved them” to the gym on Monday, Daniels said. “They did not notify our office. We cannot move it” in the middle of voting.
But she said no one is being turned away.
Daniels said she was looking into a similar complaint at Dresden Elementary after the AJC was notified by a voter.
Sally Shornick said she has been voting at the Chamblee school for years, in the library. She arrived to find that she had to walk down a long flight of stairs to the gym, where voting had moved.
She said she asked if there was another way and was told no.
“There was no ramp," Shornick said, adding that she is worried anyone who is in a wheelchair won't be able to vote. "It was just stairs. Concrete stairs and railing.”
In Dunwoody, a small electrical fire caused a brief evacuation at All Saints Catholic Church. Daniels said she was attempting to keep the precinct open an extra 30 minutes to compensate.
Otherwise, Daniels said, Election Day is going smoothly in DeKalb.
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