Fulton election officials work through night to deliver last-minute equipment to precincts

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Only hours before Election Day, Fulton County election officials confirmed they had delays delivering some voting equipment to precincts.

Channel 2′s Miek Petchenik was at a polling place in Roswell, where there the county is blaming a vendor for pulling out last-minute and leaving elections workers scrambling to get crucial equipment to more than two dozen polling places.

The Fulton County Elections Board told Channel 2 that some polling places had delays getting iPads that are used to verify that voters are registered.

Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said the contractors responsible for delivering the tablets didn’t show up at some precincts.

“One of the two companies that we contracted did not show up, which really hurt us,” Pitts said.

The company named by the Fulton board manager as the vendor is denying their people did anything wrong. A Beltmann representative told Petchenik they fulfilled their contract and are doing more work for this week.

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Poll worker Phil Saylor reached out to Channel 2 Action News with concerns that the issue was political.

“I immediately thought it was voter suppression," Saylor said.

Pitts said there was no suppression that he was aware of.

The county worked through the night to get tablets delivered and Pitts said all the polling places opened on time.

Voter Vanessa Gary described her voting experience in Alpharetta “super easy and super simple.”

“I really expected because of the highly-political four years we’ve had for there to be a large amount of people and for it to be a 30-minute, 40-minute process,” Gary said.

Many of the precincts affected were in House District 48. Incumbent Democrat Mary Robichaux told Petchenik things ended up running smoothly.

“We saw some reports very early, but any issue has been resolved and things are running smoothly across North Fulton," Robichaux said. "Voters should go vote and not be deterred from having their voice heard. Voter suppression or intimidation in any form is wrong.”

Republican challenger Betty Price issued a statement:

“The real voter suppression and harassment is against the Republicans in North Fulton county," Price said. “The only precinct (one out of eleven) ready to go in HD 48 with machines and supplies delivered last evening was in the precinct with the largest number of Democrat voters.”

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