Media Contact

Contact: Ana Maria Rosato, [email protected]

October 22, 2020

Atlanta – At its meeting this morning, the DeKalb County Board of Elections adopted the ACLU of Georgia’s Deputy Registrar Recruitment Initiative.

“Congratulations to the DeKalb County Board of Elections for adopting our groundbreaking Deputy Registrar Recruitment Initiative that will drastically reduce the time voters wait in line. This initiative revolutionizes voting in DeKalb County,” said Christopher Bruce, political director of the ACLU of Georgia. “We need 500 lawyers to step up to protect our democracy in this critical election. Interested lawyers can go to acluga.org/dekalbcountyregistrars for more information.”

During the June 9 general primary in Georgia, many would-be absentee voters in DeKalb County showed up to vote in person, which led to excessive delays as poll workers had to cancel the absentee ballots of these voters before allowing them to vote electronically. This process involved placing a phone call to a central office, which took as long as 8-10 minutes per voter.

When a DeKalb voter who has requested an absentee ballot arrives at a precinct intending to vote in person, it will be the responsibility of a DeKalb County Deputy Registrar stationed at each polling location to cancel that absentee ballot directly through the county election software. This new process will drastically reduce wait times for DeKalb voters.

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