Twice as many ballots as the number of registered voters were cast in a northeastern Georgia precinct during the state’s primary elections in May.
According to official numbers from the Georgia Secretary of State, 670 votes were cast in Habersham County’s Mud Creek precinct, where there were only 276 registered voters, says a report from McClatchy DC. Impossibly, this means the precinct saw a 243% voter turnout.
In a bizarre turn of events, the number of registered voters changed from 276 to 3,704 on the secretary of state’s website on Tuesday morning.
Questions of electronic malfunction, outside tampering, and voter fraud — particularly in light of a pending investigation into alleged voter fraud during the Atlanta mayoral election runoff in December — linger over the state.
“The odd turnout figures last Friday were filed as part of a federal lawsuit against the state by election security activists that included a number of sworn statements and exhibits from activists and voters who experienced a series of bizarre and confusing issues at the state’s polling places,” reports McClatchy.
One voter, for example, claimed in a sworn statement that she and her husband were assigned differing polling locations despite registering to vote at the same address. In another instance, someone claimed their voting machine froze while attempting to cast their ballot. Others said they showed up at the correct polling place per the SOS website, only to be directed to a differing location.
Additionally, it’s important to note that Georgia is one of only a handful of states which rely on electronic voting machines, negating a paper trail to be audited. In fact, a federal judge is currently considering whether the state should switch to paper ballots come November, reported the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Wednesday.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is claiming the security of his state elections is secure. “Alongside federal, local, and private sector partners, we continue to fight every day to ensure secure and accurate elections in Georgia that are free from interference. To this day, due to the vigilance, dedication, and hard work of those partners, our elections system and voting equipment remain secure,” said SOS spokeswoman Candice Broce via email.