Ahead of Tuesday runoff, nearly one third of Cobb has voted

By the time early voting ended Friday, nearly one in every three Cobb County voters had already cast a ballot in the runoff election between U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

More than 155,510 Cobb voters, or 30.4%, have voted early in person or by absentee ballot, according to data from the Secretary of State’s office.

That turnout rate surpasses the state at-large, where 1,852,593 voters, or 26.4%, have cast a ballot.

Early voting totals in Cobb weren’t as high as before the Nov. 8 general election, but voters had far less time to cast a ballot — one week before the runoff, as opposed to three weeks before the general election.

That resulted in single-day totals that blew past the previous election. Last Monday, for example, saw over 27,000 voters cast a ballot in person, resulting in long lines at some Cobb polling locations. On Friday, the county said 29,699 people voted early.

By way of comparison, the largest single-day total in the general election, which saw short wait times, was around 14,600.

In Cobb, the huge early voting turnout was overshadowed Friday by a legal dispute over absentee ballots. The American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center sued the county, alleging that delays in ballot mailing caused by the Thanksgiving holiday had disenfranchised voters.

After hours of negotiation, Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill signed off on an agreement to extend the absentee ballot deadline by three days — to Dec. 9 — for any voter whose absentee ballot application was accepted on or before Nov. 26.

Ballots in that category must be postmarked by Tuesday, Dec. 6, which is Election Day.

About 3,400 ballots were initially identified as having been affected by the delay. In a news release Saturday, however, Cobb GOP Chair Salleigh Grubbs said over 6,600 voters “who applied for an absentee ballot may not have received their absentee ballot as timely as anyone would’ve liked.”

The county attributed the hiccups in mailing the ballots to a shortened turnaround time from the general election as well as a four-day pause during the Thanksgiving holiday. Cobb has also issued the most absentee ballots of any county in the state, per the Secretary of State’s office.

But last week’s faux pas were the latest in a series of issues for the elections office throughout the year.

In a video posted Friday, Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said the issues “require us to take a deep dive and assess our elections processes.”

“I’m grateful that our elections leadership is committed to working with our Cobb internal audit division to assess our absentee ballot process,” Cupid said.

She added, “We have opportunity to ensure that we are evaluating and updating our processes to accommodate this new law, and to support the avid participation and interest of our registered voters. … I look forward to seeing some improvement with our elections process once we have the ability to evaluate it with our audit department.”

In addition to returning absentee ballots by mail, they can be returned to the county’s main elections office at 995 Roswell St. in Marietta from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Polls will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday for the runoff and close at 7 p.m.