Democratic Party Of Georgia Sues State Over Long Lines On Election Day

The Democratic Party of Georgia has sued its state’s election officials over the long lines that voters faced during multiple recent elections, most notably the June primary, in which some people waited for hours to cast their vote.

As the Associated Press reported, the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in federal court in Atlanta, alleges that Georgia authorities dropped the ball when it came to making sure the constitutional rights of voters were met. And while the queues endured on June 9 made national headlines, the lawsuit, which names Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as a defendant, says that the matter of officials there forcing individuals to wait in long lines goes back to at least 2008.

The Democratic Party of Georgia, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and three specific women are the plaintiffs. All of the women are suing because of their experiences two months ago.

One, a 71-year-old, said that she tried to vote three times on the day of the primary, but each time, she was dissuaded by the queues. After a full day of working, she was “exhausted” and didn’t want to face the prospect of waiting for an extended period of time in the Georgia heat, and ultimately gave up. As a result, she was disenfranchised, she claims.

Another plaintiff says she applied for an absentee ballot but never got one. On Election Day, she showed up at the polling place half an hour before it opened, and still wound up having to wait in line for six hours, missing work in the process.

A third plaintiff took off work an hour early so she could vote on June 5 — the deadline for early voting — and got to her polling place at 4:30 p.m. Due to the long queue, she didn’t get to cast her ballot until 1 a.m.

The lawsuit claims that the issue was driven by the closure and consolidation of polling places, a failure to provide adequate equipment, insufficient training of election judges and volunteers, a shortage of technicians to address technical problems, insufficient time to set up polling locations and a lack of emergency paper ballot backups when equipment fails, among other reasons.

Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said that her boss is already working with local officials to address the problems that plagued Georgia’s primary so that there won’t be a repeat when Georgians cast their ballots on November 3.

“We will work around the clock from here through the elections — under the extraordinary circumstances of a pandemic — to ensure that all eligible Georgia voters are informed fully about any polling place changes, that we have enough precincts and poll workers, and that we do everything possible to minimize lines,” she said.