In early October, the secretary of state's office told four counties — Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett in the metro Atlanta area and Chatham County in southeast Georgia — that had long lines, absentee ballot problems and late opening or closing polls in the primary to avoid a repeat by providing weekly updates on poll worker training, polling places and line management plans.
Besides the board's actions, the Georgia Senate considered a proposal filed in February and endorsed by Raffensperger. It would have required county elections supervisors to add more equipment or poll workers, or split up any precincts with more than 2,000 voters, if there was a wait longer than an hour measured at three points on Election Day.
More than 1,500 of Georgia's 2,655 precincts have at least 2,000 voters — many of them in urban Democratic counties — and Raffensperger said at the time that voters should never have to wait more than 30 minutes.
But the bill, SB 463, was opposed by Democratic lawmakers and voting rights groups, who argued that any revamping in an election year would cause confusion and create more ways to keep people from casting their ballot.