A statewide issue with electronic poll pads has sent many runoff voters to closed polling places this morning.
The feature – which directed voters to early voting sites rather than their correct polling places – has been disabled on the pads, said Travis Doss, executive director for Richmond County Board of Elections.
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The problem occurred when voters went to their non-assigned polling place to vote in today’s runoffs.
Pollworkers looking up their correct sites were shown an early voting site instead, Doss said.
“The feature that was supposed to tell them where to go and vote was sending them to advance voting locations,” he said.
Augusta had four early voting sites. Workers noticed the problem when voters turned up at Augusta Municipal Building to cast a ballot, only to find no voting there, he said.
For voters sent to closed polling sites, Doss said they should call the board of elections at (706) 821-2340 or look up their assigned polling place at the Secretary of State’s My Voter Page.
Richmond County hasn’t had any polling place changes since 2022, so most voters would likely know where their polling place is, he said.
Otherwise, about 1,600 had voted in Richmond as of 9:15 a.m., Doss said. Voters are experiencing the usual confusion about whether they can vote in the Democratic primary, which includes a runoff for Richmond County Sheriff.
Voters who either voted Democratic, nonpartisan or not at all can vote in the Democratic runoff. Those who used a Republican ballot May 21 can only vote in the nonpartisan runoff for superior court judge.
Columbia County had only one advance voting site, at the elections central office, so any issue would likely have been discovered quickly.
Some 16 polling places are open in Columbia County for the state House District 131 Republican runoff.
