Voters Still Positive After Macon – Bibb Elections Mix-Up

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon and Bibb county voters can rest assured, officials at the board of elections office say they’ve worked out all of their registration issues.

One by one, voters wanted to make sure they got it right.

Early voting is underway for the new Macon-Bibb County consolidated government, and a mix-up caused some to place their ballot in the wrong district.

Elections supervisor Jeanetta Watson says 36 people from five different districts voted in the wrong place.

“We don’t want that deter anyone from coming out and casting their ballot, the wrinkles have been ironed out to the best of our knowledge,” Watson said.

Watson announced in late August that officials registered nearly 800 voters in the wrong district, and now people who already voted can’t do it again.

“The voters that voted in the wrong district, their vote will count for the mayor and the vote will count actually for the commission district it’s just not going to be the one that they’re registered in,” Watson said.

Still, residents remain positive even after all of the confusion.

“I’m glad in a way that some of this has come about not any negativity, but just the fact there was reason to look at things very carefully,” one voter said.

“I think it’s going to be interesting, I’m just waiting to see the outcome of it, I’ve been keeping up with just a little bit here and there, but I think it’s going to be an interesting election,” another voter said.

Watson is working with the county’s geographic information system to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.

“We’re very sorry, it’s very unfortunate, but the state of Georgia does not provide a way to accommodate the voter that has voted in the wrong district. I said I expressed our heartfelt apologies to those voters that did come out,” Watson said.

Early voting for the new Macon – Bibb county government ends on September 13th.