Clayton County Voters Stand In 12-Hour Lines- This is in Georgia

[Top Cat]

POSTED: 6:11 am EDT October 28, 2008UPDATED: 12:18 pm EDT October 28, 2008

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. -- While the polls officially closed at 7 p.m. Monday night in Clayton County, the line to vote at the Frank Bailey Senior Center in Riverdale didn't clear up until 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Advance voting began in Georgia Monday -- and the first day proved to be a long one for many voters.

Clayton County voter Patricia Lewis finally voted in Riverdale after standing in line to vote for six hours. "I vote in every election and I couldn't pass this one up. I think about my dad, about the struggles he through and for me to vote again is just amazing," Lewis.

When asked about the long line, Lewis said, "It's OK. I stand in lines to shop. Six hours to vote...it's nothing."

Lewis had lots of people to keep her company. For much of the day, Clayton County voters stood in line for eight to nine hours to cast their ballots.

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Clayton County's election supervisor, Annie Bright, blamed the state. She said the computer mainframe the state uses to check voter registration became overwhelmed and didn't start working correctly until 4:30 p.m. Monday. The Secretary of State's Office said Clayton County should take the blame. The office said back-ups took place intermittently and didn't last long enough to cause eight hour delays.

Channel 2 talked to one poll worker who worked an 18 hour shift. She still didn't complain about the problems. She said she was just glad to see so many people interested in voting. "It makes me feel good," said election worker Beatrice Lyons. "They can just come and stay all night and I'll be right here."

Lyons said she saw some people arrive at 1 p.m. Monday and they didn't vote until 12:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Advance voting continues in Georgia for the rest of the week.

Copyright 2008 by WSBTV.com


Edit-
Yesterday I posted the fact that my husband was in line for over 6 hours.... That was nothing compared to this.

[high density]

1. Who is the contractor or state official...

that is in charge of these fucked up computer systems in Georgia? They obviously have no clue WTF they are doing.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

2. This is ridiculous - who is in charge locally and statewide?

Dems or Repukes?

[RepublicanElephant]

6. the georgia peach version of katherine harris, karen handel, is secretary of state.

before her, the sos was this dem knucklehead cathy cox, who put all those freakin' diebolds all over the state.

[Top Cat]

10. The Repukes

[justiceischeap]

3. Top Cat, is this in a predominantly AA district?

I'm wondering if they underestimated turn-out or were just disenfranchising the AA community again.

[JJ]

4. That's a rhetorical question right?

[jezebel]

5. Wow makes my 3 1/2 hour wait in Gwinnett county today look like nothing. Good for those people.

[catgirl]

7. This is an outrage

Thank you to all the voters who went, and will go, through this to get their votes counted for
Obama. Hang in there! I'm so proud of you.

[ShadowLiberal]

8. That's insane, 12 hour waits, they need to fire whoever made that horrible computer system

Seriously, there's freaking websites to verify your voter registration that work for almost all states that could look up the names of all those people in a fraction of time.

[Top Cat]

9. Georgia is totally Fu_k up

I voted today and they had me in the system twice. I changed my address in June with the elections department because I moved. They had the old address and the new one in the system as though there were 2 different people.

[kdpeters]

11. Wow! I was totally feeling so proud for waiting 2+ hours in Dekalb County

I guess I was one of the lucky ones. Dekalb County had a really smooth fast-running operation. I estimate close to 1000 people inline ahead of me and I only waited two hours. It was a crazy madhouse, but they had everything managed down to a T. It was great. I'm sorry to hear about Clayton County, but I can vouch for Dekalb County: smooth as silk.