ATLANTA (AP) Georgia's chief election officer warned that Tuesday's results may be slow to come in as poll closures and virus restrictions complicate in-person voting and counties work to process a huge increase in ballots received by mail.
Technical glitches, a lack of poll workers and high turnout contributed to long lines, prompting judges in numerous counties, including Atlanta's Fulton County, to sign orders extending voting hours.
Despite reported problems in Fulton, Dekalb and neighboring Gwinnett County, Hall County had a mostly smooth day at the polls, according to county government spokeswoman Katie Crumley.
Crumley spoke to WDUN's Mitch Clarke and Martha Zoller just after polls closed at 7 p.m. in Hall County, calling the General Primary "a monster."
"You know, there's a lot of [races] on the ballot to begin with, but you have COVID-19 and you have new election equipment, so a lot of new, different, unique things going on all at once," Crumley said.
Crumley also said the Hall County Elections Office had handled a much larger number of absentee ballots than during a typical election - just as other counties had done.
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, 21,212 absentee ballots had been accepted by the Hall County Elections Office. With early and day-of in-person voting, that brought the total Hall County vote to 36,604 with one hour remaining for voting.
Among the key races was a contested Democratic primary for the nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue in November. Democrats included former congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and former lieutenant governor candidate Sarah Riggs Amico.
Perdue, a close Trump ally, is seeking a second term in November as Republicans look to hold the White House and a Senate majority. He drew no GOP primary opposition.
The race has proven to be anything but predictable, with the candidates forced to do most campaigning online because of the coronavirus pandemic. In recent days, the contest was shaped by widespread protests and civil unrest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Criticism of the Trump administration's response on both fronts has added fuel to Democrats' ambitions of winning in Georgia, where Republicans dominate statewide elections, but Democrats are making gains.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of votes, the top two finishers will advance to an Aug. 11 runoff. Other Democrats in the race include former ACLU of Georgia head Maya Dillard Smith, Air Force veteran James Knox and Marckeith DeJesus.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday predicted longer lines. He also said his office won't begin to release results until the last precinct has closed. He predicted the winners may not be known for days.
``To get a good concept of where we are with the election who won, who lost, or who's in the runoff, things like that I would think that could take upward of a couple days in some of these really tightly contested elections,'' Raffensperger said.
Voters will also select party nominees for U.S. House races and for state House and Senate. Other state and local races are on the ballot as well.
More than 1.2 million Georgians have already voted early, Raffensperger said Monday. A majority of those ballots were cast absentee by mail after the Republican elections chief sent absentee ballot applications to 6.9 million active registered voters, hoping to ease pressure on in-person poll operations.
AccessWDUN staff contributed to this report.
