Officials urged to follow rules to prevent any double-voting

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/24/04

When an Atlanta man voted twice in the July party primaries, he exposed a potential flaw in Georgia's early voting program.

Election officials claim that the case of double-voting was an aberration that shows what can happen when critical Election Day procedures are not followed. As a precaution, Secretary of State Cathy Cox recently warned the state's local election officials to follow protocol to ensure such an abuse does not happen again.
Craig Kidd cast a ballot ahead of the July 20 Republican primary during the five-day period for advance voting. A designated Republican poll watcher and campaign worker for a GOP state Senate candidate, Kidd showed up at his Buckhead polling place on Election Day to make sure his advance vote had been recorded. Kidd claims a poll worker told him there was no record of his vote and advised him to vote again to be sure his vote would be tallied.

Later in the day, Kidd contacted The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to tell a reporter he was alarmed that he was allowed to cast two ballots. Kidd said he was concerned that the ballots of some early voters would not be counted or that some people could vote twice.

Cox referred Kidd's case to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard in September, recommending that Kidd be investigated for voting twice — a felony in Georgia.

Fulton election officials have acknowledged that a breakdown in procedures allowed Kidd to vote twice. When a voter casts an early ballot, a notation of that vote should be made on a master voter registration list that is later sent to precincts prior to Election Day. Poll workers then will cross the advance voters off the list of people eligible to vote at their polling place.

But Fulton County was late sending out its master list, getting it to some precincts after the polls had opened. So some people — including Kidd — who had voted early were not shown as having done so. Fulton officials later disqualified Kidd's early vote, which has a unique identifying number allowing election officials to know who cast it.

John Sullivan, chief of voter registration for Fulton County, said his office has shored up its procedures to make sure each precinct knows prior to Election Day who voted early.

"Our only standard in elections is perfection. Ninety-nine percent in schools is an A. But in elections, that's a failure," Sullivan said.

In mid-September, Cox's office sent a memo to the state's local elections officials reminding them of the importance of making sure those lists are accurately maintained and sent to poll workers before the precincts open on Election Day.

"Advance voting has increased the number of those who vote absentee, and it is critical that these (and all) absentee votes are recorded properly so that poll workers can easily ascertain if someone is attempting to cast a second ballot at the polls on Election Day," the memo reads.

Cox said in a recent interview that the new early voting program is not uniquely susceptible to fraud. The same procedures to prevent double-voting have been used for decades in Georgia for people who cast absentee ballots ahead of Election Day, she said.

"This is not a new process at all," Cox said. "Forever, when you absentee voted, the counties were required to mark on the voter list that you had already cast an absentee ballot."

Regardless, Gwinnett County's election supervisor, Lynn Ledford, said she used the Kidd situation to remind her poll workers of the potential for double-voting.

Sharon Wingfield, Cobb County's elections supervisor, is confident that advance voting is not susceptible to fraud. The names of Cobb voters are marked with an "A" on master lists that show whether they have already voted. Those lists are distributed to poll workers well before the precincts open, she said.

"We looked at our procedures again and felt like we had enough safeguards in there to keep that from happening," she said.