Southwest Georgia voters cast ballots in primary election

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    Albany, GA (Albany Herald) — The irony wasn’t lost on Rick Boges as he cast his ballot late Tuesday morning at the Westover High School gymnasium.

A jailer at the Dougherty County Jail, Boges — who was in uniform — was one of the voters who would help determine whether his boss, Sheriff Kevin Sproul, would return to office for another four-year term.

“Yeah, I’m voting (in the sheriff’s race, a race that is on the Democratic primary ballot),” Boges said. “I’ll be honest with you, I like the guy we have in there now.”

The crowds in the Westover gym, which absorbed voters from three other precincts due to a shortage of poll workers, led to longer waits than usual, but there were few of the complaints that had plagued polling places in the state throughout the day, leading to barbs being tossed at Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whose office deflected blame for delays in some parts of the state by blaming local Elections officers.

Despite heavy rains at the time, there was a growing line around noon of voters in general and others who were told by Elections officials that they were shown as having voted via absentee ballot. Those voters had to sign an affidavit saying they had not cast an absentee ballot and allowing for any such ballot that existed to be discarded before being allowed to vote.

“It is kind of aggravating,” voter Ann Owen said as she waited in the line. “First of all, there was no sign at our precinct (Precinct 27 at Westover Community Church) directing us to come here. I had to call the Elections office. There should have been a sign. (There was such a sign at the Albany State University West campus precinct.)

“When I did get here to vote, they told me I was shown as having voted by absentee ballot. I have not. So I had to wait in this line to sign that paper before I could vote. It’s kind of frustrating.”

With voters who usually cast ballots at the ASU West (Precinct 7), Westover Community Church and Greenbriar Church (Precinct 4) precincts having been moved to the Westover High School precinct, the turnout was unusually large, according to first-time poll worker Tierra McKinney.

“Things are going along pretty smoothly considering the large numbers we’ve had so far,” McKinney said. “There were people lined up to vote when we opened the doors at 7 o’clock this morning, and it’s been steady like this ever since.

“I think it’s a larger crowd than usual primarily because they moved those other precincts here, but I think a lot of people plan to vote in this election. It’s a big one.”

Voters Donna Tabb and Bob Fletcher, who usually vote at the Greenbriar Precinct, said coming to the new location was “no big deal.”

“Both of them are on my way in from work,” Tabb said.

While Fletcher too said the adjustment was a minor one, he said he was a bit perturbed that Elections officials “didn’t do a better job of letting us know about the changes.”

Patsy Ward was going over a copy of her ballot — a feature of the new voting system incorporated as a hedge against cyber attacks — moments after completing her ballot.

“I voted on the Republican ballot because I wanted to vote for Trump,” she said, indicating a common misconception during primary elections. “But I really wanted to vote for Kevin Sproul for sheriff. And his name wasn’t on that ballot.”

Told that under the primary system voters had to choose which candidates they wanted to support and determine their party affiliation to get the correct ballot, Ward said she intended to rescind her first ballot so she could cast a vote for Sproul.

“I’ll have a chance to vote for the president (in the general election), right?” she said. Told that she would, Ward said she would change her ballot.

Elections officials across the state knew going in that the use of new voting machines, which the state bought at a cost of $104 million, would provide a stiff test for poll workers and Elections officials. And fears related to the coronavirus pandemic led many poll workers to opt out of working during the primary election, leading to situations in Dougherty County where precincts were combined..

“I hope everything goes alright across the state, but it’s going to be a real test,” Lee County Elections Supervisor Veronica Johnson said. “We are fortunate in Lee County because we had a special election (to fill a vacancy in the state Senate after the death late last year of Sen. Greg Kirk), and everything ran well. But there will a lot more voters in the primaries. I know we’ll all get through it; I just hope it goes well.”

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