Chatham's Election Day problems stemmed from equipment, electrical issues: elections chief

Chatham County's Election Day went fairly smoothly, but it wasn't without its issues, Elections Supervisor Billy Wooten said about an hour before polls closed on Tuesday.

There were issues with the state's voting equipment that delayed voting at a few precincts across the county. Sometimes, the issues stemmed from user error; sometimes, it was an old or faulty outlet; sometimes it was a paper jam in the scanner.

These machines are still very new for Georgia. The purchase of Dominion Voting System's machines in 2019 was the largest in state history, and they've been in use for only a couple of large-scale elections: the November 2020 General Election and the January 2021 runoff.

LIVE ELECTION RESULTS: Latest results from May 24 primary and nonpartisan elections

Election Day updates:Polls are closed, but the vote tally begins in Savannah, Chatham County

Read More:How do Georgia's Dominion voting machines work? Officials roll out new system

Also:Chatham Interim Elections Supervisor Billy Wooten hopes to 'continue to improve'

Wooten says all 92 of Chatham's polls opened on time, and he didn't see the need to ask a judge to extend any polling place's hours.

Wooten said the only time he'd consider this is if the polls hadn't opened on time.

"Everybody opened on time," Wooten said. "And we did have some glitches, but that doesn't mean we weren't open, and it doesn't mean that voters couldn't check in while we were fixing a machine, or while we were fixing an electrical issue."

Voting machine issues

Just because the polls opened on time, doesn't mean everything went off without a hitch. As with any election, equipment issues held up voting across the county at multiple points throughout the day.

Five voters at Precinct 3-03, Savannah High School, had to cast provisional ballots on Tuesday because of electrical issues. One of the outlets wasn't keeping the machines charged.

On Election Day, voting machine technicians fielded reports of equipment errors throughout the county, going from precinct to precinct and troubleshooting issues.

While technicians ran additional power to the site through extension cords, voters cast provisional ballots. 

At Precinct 7-09, Compassion Christian Church, the poll opened on time, but there were issues with a couple of the touchscreens. Wooten says a technician was sent to the site, and the issues were resolved. He noted that not all the machines were affected by the issue. 

Wooten said he stopped by Precinct 8-09, the Moses Jackson Center, where there was an issue with a piece of equipment called an encoder. It stalled voting earlier in the day, and a few voters had to come back to the polls after. 

“I spoke to them and apologized for them not being able to vote the first time. They were very gracious, and said they understood how things happen, and they cast a vote,” Wooten said. 

Earlier, Wooten decided he would check out an issue reported at Precinct 1-06, Central Church of Christ, since its Stephenson address wasn’t far from BOE headquarters at 1117 Eisenhower Dr. 

Wooten drove over and determined the voting machine issue stemmed from operator error, made slightly worse by the growing line of voters outside. 

He stepped in, and he and the poll workers managed to figure out the issue. Wooten said the line was moving smoothly when he left to try and put out another fire.

There were a few technical issues early in the morning at Wilmington Island Presbyterian Church, precinct 4-8, but all were solved quickly, said poll manager Roxy Hogan. 

“When I say paper jams,” Hogan explained, “that’s normal.” 

At Precinct 8-01, the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, there was a problem with the scanner, the last step in the voting process.

Voters receive a paper copy of their vote after casting their ballot, which goes into the scanner. It's meant to be a way for voters to proofread their ballots, and serves as a paper trail for audits, like the one in 2020.

But voting at the precinct never stopped, Wooten said. The paper copies were placed into the locked emergency bins, the process outlined in state law. 

"The statute says that if the scanner is inoperable, voters put their ballots in the emergency bin, while the technicians repair their scanners," Wooten said. "So it allows us to continue voting ... until such time as they can be scanned."

Wooten was a poll worker himself with two decades of experience before he took this job. He said early Tuesday that there will always be small fires to put out on Election Day, but overall, he was proud of his team and the work they did during voting hours.

“Other than having to move people around, we’ve really only had some minor things, printers not working, things like that,” Wooten said Tuesday morning. “When you (use) 2,700 pieces of equipment, you’re gonna have some issues. But every poll opened, and no poll opened late.”

Will Peebles is the enterprise reporter for Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at wpeebles@gannett.com and @willpeeblessmn on Twitter.