Gwinnett County commissioners said Tuesday they would consider expanding early voting to a third week at all satellite locations in May, but the need for training on new machines means there will be no additional hours at satellite locations for the presidential primary March 24.
The county’s elections board asked commissioners to fund expanded early voting at seven satellite locations to 19 days from 12 for all three of this year’s elections.
The expansion of early voting has been promised for November. But at a meeting last month, elections supervisor Kristi Royston said only the main elections office would have 19 days of early voting in March and May.
Charlotte Nash, the chairman of the Gwinnett County commission, said elections staff need time at one location to ensure that poll workers understand how the new voting machines function before rolling out early voting outside the main elections office.
“It puts them in a better position to prepare for the May primary,” she said. “We have to wait and see how things play out at the presidential (primary). My hope is to go the full three weeks at the satellites. We’ve got the funding in the budget to cover it.”
Commissioners agreed with Nash’s assessment, voting unanimously to keep early voting to 19 days at one location and 12 days at seven others.
Nash said she was wary of making any predictions about whether the county would need additional time to train poll workers in May, especially since the delivery of voting machines just began last week.
County Commissioner Jace Brooks said given the “absolute fiasco” in Iowa, where technology snafus delayed the reporting of Democratic caucus results, he wanted the county to ensure its technology was working.
“It’s good we have one week, at least, to test at one location before expanding to all eight,” said Ben Ku, a county commissioner.
But residents and election board members said last month that they thought early voting should have been expanded to all locations, as was originally requested. Penny Poole, president of the Gwinnett NAACP, said not doing so equates to voter suppression.
John Mangano, the election board chair, said last month that he understood the decision not to roll out early voting in too many locations too quickly.
“But I’m not happy about it,” he said in January.
EARLY VOTING
Gwinnett County will open its Voter Registrations and Elections office for early voting from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 2-20. It’s located at 455 Grayson Highway in Lawrenceville.
Seven other early voting locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 9-20. They are:
- Bogan Park Community Recreation Center, 2723 North Bogan Road in Buford
- Dacula Park Activity Building, 2735 Old Auburn Ave. in Dacula
- George Pierce Park Community Recreation Center, 55 Buford Highway in Suwanee
- Lenora Park Gym, 4515 Lenora Church Road in Snellville
- Lucky Shoals Park Recreation Center, 4651 Britt Road in Norcross
- Mountain Park Activity Building, 1063 Rockbridge Road in Stone Mountain
- Shorty Howell Park Activity Building, 2750 Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth
About the Author
