ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia’s chief election officer said Wednesday that he’s seeking legislation that would let the state election board set rules allowing him to intervene in troubled county election offices.
The move comes after primary elections in Georgia last week were marred by a series of problems amid high turnout and hourslong waits for many voters at some polling places.
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could not provide specifics about how the process would work or what criteria would be used to deem a county’s elections in need of a takeover.
“We would be looking for that to come through the state election board and really have a deep discussion on that to make sure it’s the proper method to go forward,” Raffensperger said. “It’s not something that we’d ever take lightly.”
Raffensperger also reiterated that mail ballot applications won’t be sent out to all Georgia voters for August runoffs or for Election Day in November, as was done for the recent primaries. He cited the costs of that program and said his office instead wants to open a centralized portal where voters can apply for an absentee ballot online.