‘Ridiculous’: Georgia voters endure hourslong waits amid record early voter turnout

The shortest wait times are at the Riverside EpiCenter and the West Cobb Regional Library, where voters can expect to wait about 90 minutes. The longest wait time is Marieta’s Main Office, where the estimated wait time is seven hours.

Georgia is expecting a record turnout for this year’s presidential election. “Georgia is seeing record turnout for early voting because of excitement and enthusiasm of the upcoming election,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said, according to 11 Alive. “Long lines are to be expected — voters need to be aware of all of their options including three weeks of early voting, no-excuse absentee and in-person voting day of the election.”

The state encouraged voters to vote early or with absentee ballots to reduce the risk of contracting the coronavirus. According to Georgia Public Broadcasting, more than 1.6 million Georgians requested absentee ballots. So far, more than 430,000 have already been returned.

“We’d prepared as much as we could, but there’s only so much space in the rooms and parking in the parking lot. We’re maxing out both of those,” Cobb County Elections and Registration Director Janine Eveler said. “People are double parking, we have gridlock pretty much in our parking lot.”

Malfunctioning electronic pollbooks stalled voting at the State Farm Arena. With 300 voting machines, the area is Georgia’s largest early voting site.

Despite the early roadblocks, officials emphasize that there’s still plenty of time left ahead of Election Day for voters to get their votes in.

Some voters expressed their frustration on the Cobb County Government Facebook page, which warned that “some locations show 5-hour wait times.”

“This is ridiculous,” one woman wrote on the county government’s Facebook page. “I’ve been in line for 2.5hrs probably still have another hr left and the people who have casted their vote come out saying not all machines are being used.”