ATLANTA (AP) — Voters waited as long as five hours to cast ballots in some Georgia precincts on Tuesday amid reports of voting machine malfunctions and high turnout in a state that President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are expected to hotly contest in the fall.
The state’s chief elections officer, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, announced plans to investigate voting problems that plagued Fulton and Dekalb counties, where roughly half the population is black.
Even before Georgia voters ran into problems Tuesday, Raffensperger warned that results may be slow to come in as poll closures and virus restrictions complicate in-person voting and counties process a huge increase in ballots received by mail.
For the first time, Georgia sent absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters, although many reported on Tuesday that they never received them.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised that Georgia had voting problems given that the state’s elections chief is a Republican.
