10:31 pm — Fulton County: “At approximately 6:07 a.m., the staff at State Farm Arena notified Fulton County Registration & Elections of a water leak affecting the room where absentee ballots were being tabulated. The State Farm Arena team acted swiftly to remediate the issue. Within 2 hours, repairs were complete. No ballots were damaged, nor was any equipment affected. There was a brief delay in tabulating absentee ballots while the repairs were being conducted.
“Tonight Fulton County will report results for approximately 86,000 absentee ballots, as well as Election Day and Early Voting results. These represent the vast majority of ballots cast within Fulton County.
“As planned, Fulton County will continue to tabulate the remainder of absentee ballots over the next two days. Absentee ballot processing requires that each ballots is opened, signatures verified, and ballots scanned. This is a labor intensive process that takes longer to tabulate than other forms of voting. Fulton County did not anticipate having all absentee ballots processed on Election Day.
“Fulton County is committed to ensuring that every vote is counted and will comply with all applicable laws and regulations.” [Source: 11 Alive]
7:00 pm — The polls are CLOSED! (in most places…) With the exception of polling sites in: Spalding County, Ferguson Elementary in Duluth, Sope Creek Elementary in Cobb County, and Ponce De Leon Library in Atlanta, all others are now closed. Voters who remain in line are permitted to cast a ballot after closing time. [CBS 46]
6:37 pm — Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron to Provide Virtual Election Day Update at 7:30pm. Here are the details.
6:23 pm — U.S. Postal Service says is could not make deadline to sweep sorting facilities:
The U.S. Postal Service responded to Judge Sullivan’s order late Tuesday, noting that while it was not able to comply with the court-imposed deadline of 4:30 PM ET, its inspectors would complete “sweeps” of mail facilities in the key battleground states by the times polls closed.
A Justice Department lawyer representing the mail agency explained that, due to other Election Day responsibilities and logistical concerns, the Postal Service was “unable to accelerate the daily review process” to comply with Judge Sullivan’s order – but that “the process remains ongoing.”
“[The Postal Service] is working as expeditiously as possible to comply with this court’s orders while recognizing physical and operational limitations and the need to avoid disrupting key activities on Election Day,” the DOJ lawyer wrote.
Shortly after the Postal Service response, the NAACP requested an emergency hearing, claiming that the Postal Service response “does not comply to the court’s order.” [Source: WSB-TV2]
6:08 pm — Gwinnett County says polling precinct 72, Ferguson Elementary School, will remain open until 7:20 p.m. [Source: WSB-TV2]
6:01 pm — A judge has ordered that all polls stay open until 9 p.m. in Spalding County. [Spalding County Facebook]
5:15 pm — Cherokee County: Due to delays incurred at 2 elections precincts, Chief Superior Court Judge Ellen McElyea has signed a requested order to extend voting hours at Allen Temple AME, 232 Arnold Mill Rd, Woodstock, until 7:12 p.m., Tues., Nov. 3, and Canton City Hall, until 7:15 p.m., Tues., Nov. 3. [Source: Cherokee County Twitter]
4:23 pm — Cobb County: A judge has signed an order to keep the Sope Creek 02 precinct opened an additional 20 minutes tonight. This is the precinct at Sope Creek Elementary. The precinct opened 20 minutes late due to a late arriving poll manager. [Source: Cobb County Twitter]
4:04 pm — 7:45 a.m., Lisa Rogers Wood reports polls are down at the Houston County Annex Building and people are leaving the lines.
Vicki Chandler started in line at 6:30 a.m. An hour and 15 minutes later, she says poll workers told her they couldn’t let folks in because machines were not working.
We’ve been unable to reach any election officials to get any confirmation or get more information about any problems.
According to a Facebook post, the Houston County Annex polling location will remain open until 7:40 p.m.
An order from the Houston County Superior Court says they’re extending voting time because the location “failed to open” at 7 a.m. [Source: 11 Alive]
3:30 pm — In addition to Spalding and Morgan counties that have experienced issues closer to Atlanta, our TEGNA sister station in Macon, WMAZ reported some problems in their neck of the woods this morning in Houston County, Jones County and Wilkinson County.
2:55 pm — Two DeKalb County precincts will stay open until 7:40 and 7:45 p.m. tonight, respectively, under a superior court judge order signed this afternoon.
The city said in a release the DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections had petitioned to extend voting at Valley Brook Baptist Church and Obama Elementary School after they opened late this morning. Judge Courtney L. Johnson approved the petition.
*NOTE: Obama Elementary School voters — only Precinct GC (Gresham) voters are extended to 7:45pm. Precinct BL (Bouldercrest) will still close at 7:00pm. This has not been clearly related on local media. (Source: Precinct GC Election Officers)
The Valley Brook Baptist Church voting site at 1198 N. Valley Brook Road in Decatur will be open until 7:40 p.m., and Obama Elementary at 3132 Clifton Church Rd. SE in Atlanta will be open until 7:45 p.m.
“This extension was requested, in an abundance of caution, to ensure that all electors at the locations have the required full 12 hours of voting,” a release said. [Source: 11 Alive]
1:30 pm — Average wait times across Georgia remain around 5 mins. Spalding County voters reported waiting over 2 hours, having to drop their ballot in cardboard boxes and feeling like their vote is not secured and will not be counted. Fulton County officials hosted another update presser.
12:49 pm — Power outages have been reported at three voting sites in Gwinnett: Ferguson Elementary, Corley Elementary and Sweetwater Middle. Officials told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Tony Thomas that a transformer blew in the area.
Ferguson evacuated the building and voting stopped for almost an hour. Corley and Sweetwater were able to go onto the backup and continue. It’s unclear if voting will be extended at Ferguson at this time. [Source: WSB-TV2]
12:09 pm — Houston County precinct The Annex on Carl Vinson Parkway will be open an additional 50 minutes due to issues with machines. [Source: Houston County website]
11:50 am — 2 Precincts located in Central Park Recreation Center (400 Merritt Ave) have been relocated to Ponce City Market (675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE).
11:38 am — Voting machines were down at several precincts in Spalding County but the issues have been resolved and everything is up-and-running.
10:16 am — Fulton County Elections Officials — LIVE: Election Day Update Press Briefing (Youtube)
Fulton County Elections Chair encourages all voters to check the My Voter Page before they head to the polls today — county has seen 91 polling place changes since June election. Discussed equipment issues from this morning and how/when vote-by-mail ballots will be counted.
8:40 am — Voters are reporting issues with the machines at the Morris Brandon Elementary School location in northwest Atlanta [Source: WSB-TV2] *RESOLVED*
7:52 a.m. — An election official in Spalding County says they are experiencing a glitch this morning and all voting machines are down. The official wants voters to be patient and know that they will be able to vote. They are sending 2,000 provisional ballots to each precinct so everyone can post a paper ballot. They have no plans to stay open late unless court ordered but every person will get an opportunity to vote. [Source: WSB-TV2]
7:00 am — The Polls are officially open! Or at least they should be. There were early reports of machines being delivered at the last minute — if you hear of any polling precincts opening late, let us know!
The Peanut Gallery will be updating this blog all day so check back with us for the latest news on Election Day happenings. Happy Election Day!
Am at 2 precincts in downtown ATL. So far, turnout is light. There were more observers and workers than voters at the 9-10 am report times. Will update throughout day