Networking Issues Causes Macon – Bibb Early Voters To Wait for Hours

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The last day for early voting for the new Macon – Bibb consolidated was Friday, and some voters had to wait for more than two hours to get to the ballot.

“It’s the most sacred right that we have and we were going to wait, I don’t know how much longer we were going to wait, but we were going to wait…if we had to leave, we would come back,” Walton Stewart, one voter said.

For some, one hour turned to two and almost three…

Stewart was in line from 8 a.m. even then frustration started to build and a half of a dozen people started to leave.

“It wasn’t like a fight was about to break out, but everybody was getting quite frustrated for standing and waiting for 30, 45, minutes to an hour,” Stewart said.

Officials with the Macon – Bibb Board of Elections say a networking problem caused the voting delays.

“The system is Internet based. So it has to function properly for the computers to log into the county VR system,” Jeanetta Watson, Elections Supervisor for the board elections said.

John Thomas was is line for almost an hour and a half.

“It looked like to me they should have had more people working. They should’ve had more people who were taking care of the voters. We waited for quite awhile, an hour and a half is really a long time to wait,” Thomas said.

IT employees worked to fix problem, but by then some had simply had enough. Others voted, but lost the motivation to get out and hit the polls early the next time around.

“I’ll tell you the truth, I don’t think I will vote in an early voting situation again, if I’m unable to vote on Election Day, I probably won’t be voting and that’s not the outcome we want is it,” one voter said.

Board of Elections Supervisor Jeanetta Watson is urging people to continue to come out and vote.

She says this election is historic and it’s crucial for the community to head to the polls.

You can vote in the runoff elections for the new Macon – Bibb consolidated government on Election Day, Tuesday, October 15th.