Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections will hold a mock election on Tuesday, February 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.at 13 locations. Voters can participate at the South Fulton Service Center and the Wolf Creek, East Point and College Park Library Branches among other venues.
The event will help attendees get acclimated to Georgia’s new voting machines ahead of the Mar. 24 presidential preference primary. It will also serve as a training opportunity for election staff.
This will be Georgia voters’ first use of a paper-ballot system. While the technology is not radically different from the previous system, voters will have an opportunity to view a printout of their selections and then use a scanner to count their ballot as it drops into a locked ballot box.
“We encourage people to vote early so that you can get a clear understanding of what’s going on,” said Kelvin Jones, Fulton’s voter education and outreach lead training officer during a recent demonstration.
He said that the system is intuitive and simple to use, but emphasized the importance of voters reading their ballots once their responses have been printed. Poll workers will be stationed near the voter machines to ensure people are verifying the printout and to offer assistance with the new process. If a voter changes their mind, they can take their ballot to a poll worker up to three times to make revisions. Paper ballots will be kept for up to two years.
The State of Georgia inked a contract last July with Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems for the new equipment after the General Assembly authorized replacement of the voting machines. Already, thousands of machines have been delivered. A full statewide rollout of the new machines will take place before the upcoming primary.
Photo Credit: Fulton County
A list of all mock election precincts is available in the graphic below.
