Fired-up voters across Georgia descended on polling sites in record-breaking numbers on Monday, the first day of early, in-person balloting, as state and local officials reported glitches with the state’s new and troubled voting system. In Atlanta and its suburbs, long lines of socially distanced voters began forming before dawn, some waiting for as long as eight hours to vote, after a federal judge rejected an attempt to replace the $107 million system with paper ballots until its problems could be sorted out. “We thought we were going to get here early,” Norman Robinson III said as he stood in a line snaking for more than a half-mile outside his early voting site at the Gallery at South DeKalb in Decatur, near Atlanta. Still, he said, “it’s an awesome thing.”Dr. Robinson, an educator specializing in math, science and technology, added: “My parents were jailed in college during the 1960s for exercising their rights to vote. This is in my blood to make sure I honor and continue their fight for voices to be heard.”

Source: New York Times October 12, 2020 21:19 UTC