Fulton County’s election operations were under the microscope this year after a heavily scrutinized performance in 2020, and by all measures, the county passed the test.
Robb Pitts, chair of Fulton’s Board of Commissioners, gave his county a grade of “A,” and he said “the results of Tuesday’s election prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Fulton County was ready for the 2024 election.”
County officials weathered dozens of false bomb threats on Election Day, but they avoided any major controversies that haunted them in 2020. The Democratic bastion came under fire that election cycle, when then-President Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, made untrue allegations that Fulton election workers were counting fraudulent ballots.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Separately, an investigation by the secretary of state’s office confirmed election workers scanned more than 3,000 ballots twice in Fulton during the recount. The error didn’t change the overall results by much, but critics still want a further investigation into how the error occurred.
This year, Fulton ran a tight operation that included news briefings, tours of its facilities and timely uploads of the results. Officials attributed their smooth process to the county’s new election center for tabulating votes: Fulton now counts its votes in a single location, while in 2020 the county had that work spread across several locations.
Earlier in the day, bad actors tried to sow chaos: 32 bomb threats were called in to the county through email and by phone, according to law enforcement. But police said they had prepared for this possibility. The threats were found not to be credible and were cleared quickly.
In all, five polling locations were closed down briefly and then reopened with an extension to make up for any lost time.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the hoax threats that targeted polling locations in Fulton, and elsewhere, originated in Russia.
“Georgia is not going to be intimidated. Russia just decided they picked on the wrong Georgia,” Raffensperger said. “They need to pick on the other one in the Black Sea because we’re not going to be intimidated.”
By election night, there was little drama in Fulton. Election workers, members of the public and reporters from around the world crowded into the large warehouse to watch the mundane process of tabulating the results, which, to no one’s surprise, went handily to Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Democratic candidate won 72% of Fulton’s votes — nearly identical to four years ago but without the allegations of mishandled ballots that fueled conspiracy theories.
Nadine Williams, Fulton’s election director, summed it up in one sentence. “We planned, we prepared and we delivered,” she told reporters.
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