Fulton County asks to rescan 1,069 early ballots after scanner failures
Fulton County's elections director wants the county elections board to approve a different way to count 1,069 early ballots after two scanners failed, her memo shows. At one site, a voter in a wheelchair rolled over a scanner's power cable. At another, a scanner kept showing a paper jam error with no jam found.
Fulton County, Georgia, elections director Nadine Williams is asking the county's Board of Registration and Elections to approve a different way to count 1,069 early ballots, her memo shows. The ballots were cast on two scanners that failed during early voting, the memo says. County officials said more than 328,000 ballots were cast in early voting, WSB-TV reports.
At Mechanicsville Library on October 21, “a wheelchair-bound voter accidentally rolled over a scanner's power cable, causing an unexpected shutdown,” the memo says. “Upon restarting the scanner, an error displayed on the screen and the scanner would no longer operate.” The scanner had taken 361 ballots.
State voting systems staff advised that the memory cards from that scanner should not be uploaded “due to potential corruption of data,” the memo says. All 361 ballots would be scanned on a different machine.
At Hugh C. Conley Recreation Center on October 26, “a scanner persistently displayed a paper jam error, even after troubleshooting and confirming there was no apparent jam,” the memo says. The scanner was shut down after 708 ballots were cast on it.
For that scanner, staff would first move its memory cards to another scanner, the memo says. Only if that fails would the paper ballots be scanned again.
The board was scheduled to vote on the plan at its Election Night meeting, the memo says. If the board approves, Williams expects the work to start soon after polls close. “These actions will still occur within view of the public,” the memo says.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he does not expect the process to delay any race results, Atlanta News First reports. “It's one of those things that can happen,” he said.
WSB-TV says it asked the state and the county board whether the plan was approved and is waiting for answers.
What we know: Two scanners failed in early voting, and the county wants to count 1,069 ballots from them in a different way.
What we don't: Whether the board approved the plan, and whether the memory cards from the Conley scanner can be moved.
Where outlets agree The county memo, as CBS Atlanta, Atlanta News First and WSB-TV describe it, says two scanners failed during early voting and their ballots need a different way of being counted.
Where they differ Atlanta News First says more than 1,000 ballots are set to be rescanned, while CBS Atlanta says the Conley ballots would be rescanned only if officials cannot use the memory cards.