Gwinnett County will contact voters who requested an absentee ballot but never got one and send replacement ballots overnight before tomorrow’s midterm election. The move comes after a voter’s lawsuit over a ballot that never reached his mailbox and a Saturday agreement between the county and pro-voting groups representing him.
As many as 1,820 voters in Gwinnett County may have been affected, a number that turns what could have been a handful of complaints into an election problem with real consequences for turnout. County election officials will reach out individually to voters who have not yet returned their absentee ballot and tell them they can request a replacement, while the county covers return postage.
Will Hughes, who spoke publicly last week, said no voter should lose voice because an absentee ballot they requested never made it to their mailbox. He said that with Election Day just days away, voters in Gwinnett County deserve immediate action so they still have a meaningful chance to cast ballots and have them counted.
The fix does not explain why the ballots failed to arrive, and that gap still hangs over the county’s response. Similar absentee ballot problems were also reported in Cobb County, and a spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center said voters in DeKalb County faced the same issue, with county election officials there agreeing to contact individual voters who never returned their ballot and ask whether they want a replacement sent.
Raneem Ashrawi said voters should be able to count on government to do the bare minimum the law requires and mail absentee ballots on time. She called the right to vote the most fundamental constitutional right and said Gwinnett voters eligible to vote absentee should not pay the price for failures by their local board of elections. For the county, the next step is simple and urgent: get the replacement ballots out overnight and make sure enough voters can still return them in time.
