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Advocates for both U.S. presidential candidates scrambled to find every single person in Georgia who cast a flawed ballot before time ran out to fix paperwork in a race that could be decided by the narrowest margins.
Hours before the Friday 5 p.m. (local time) deadline, Christin Clatterbuck and Sarah Meng joined 20 other volunteers who were planning to visit addresses in Gwinnett County in the Atlanta suburbs in search of voters whose ballots were initially rejected but could be repaired with a signature or identification. .
Sudhin Thanawala / AP
Sarah Meng, left, and Christin Clatterbuck wait for someone to answer the door at a home in Lilburn, Georgia, where they had information that there was a problem with the absentee ballot.
Cam Ashling, a Democratic activist who organized the small effort, gave instructions and a pep talk. “It has never been truer than now that every vote counts,” he yelled next to a truck with a bed full of snacks, water and a large bottle of hand sanitizer.
Clatterbuck and Meng drove through suburban neighborhoods in their little truck. They passed the rose bushes to knock on the door of a house in Lilburn where they were looking for a 19-year-old voter. Her dad answered and promised to call her at the university.
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Other problematic votes were cast by people who are not on the voter rolls and who will need to explain why. They must correct or “cure” their ballots before the deadline for the votes to be counted.
No one knew how many defective ballots had to be corrected. Each of the state’s 159 counties maintains its own account.
John Bazemore / AP
Officials work on US ballots in Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Gerorgia.
In a second home, Clatterbuck and Meng did not find the voter, but a friend put her on the phone. She had not signed her ballot.
“As you know, it is so, so, so important. Today, not seconds after 5 o’clock, ”Meng said, giving details on exactly what needed to be done.
Alex Upreti promised to help the friend fix her vote. Meng and Clatterbuck cheered.
Sudhin Thanawala / AP
Christin Clatterbuck leaves an affidavit and information about fixing absentee ballots on the door of a home in Stone Mountain, a city near Atlanta in Georgia.
The couple did not reach every household on the list. They decided to skip a house where a pickup truck in the driveway had a “Blue Lives Matter” sticker to show their support for law enforcement in the face of Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and racial injustice. The decal suggested that the house might be occupied by someone backing US President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Sudhin Thanawala / AP
Cam Ashling talks to Democratic Party volunteers outside a home in Norcross, Georgia, before they go out to try to fix absentee ballots.
They knocked on 10 doors in total. Half of the voters said they had already corrected the problems. No one responded in three houses.
Counties are required to contact voters who have ballot problems so they can be fixed. Both political parties also have those lists and they were getting closer.
“The voters I had spoken to had already been dealt with by four people,” said State Rep. Bee Nguyen, an Atlanta Democrat who went door-to-door Wednesday in DeKalb County.
Some volunteers tried to call voters with voting problems.
“It is definitely unpredictable like anything. Think of a telemarketer, ”said Aklima Khondoker, director of All Voting is Local for the state of Georgia. “Normally for me, when a strange phone number comes up, I think it’s spam.”
John Bazemore / AP
Officials work on ballot papers at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections headquarters in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Cobb County Republican Party Chairman Jason Shepherd sent out a call Thursday for volunteers to help the state party, saying Republicans were trying to correct problems with provisional ballots. GOP state political director Joe Proenza forwarded the comment to a Trump campaign spokesman who did not respond to an email.
Democrat Joe Biden was leading President Donald Trump in Georgia by about 1,500 votes at noon, but the final results won’t be known for days. Under Georgia law, a candidate can request a recount if the margin is less than half a percentage point.
John Bazemore / AP
Officials work on the Gwinnett County ballots in Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Georgia.
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in Georgia because the race remains too close. The state’s 16 electoral votes could secure Biden’s race in his quest for the 270 votes needed to win the presidency.
The secretary of state’s office said several thousand absentee votes were still being counted. Another 8,400 ballots mailed to military and foreign voters could be counted if received by Friday’s deadline. Counties also have provisional ballots to review.
Gabriel Sterling, who has overseen the implementation of Georgia’s new electronic voting system, said counties in the state have been working diligently to finish tabulating the results. He highlighted his confidence in the legitimacy of the process. Any complaints supported by evidence will be investigated, he added.
John Bazemore / AP
Ballot officials work on ballots at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections Headquarters in the US state of Georgia.
“When you have a tight margin, little little things can make a difference. So everything will have to be investigated to protect the integrity of the vote, ”Sterling said.
After each county certifies its vote total, the state will conduct an audit before issuing its own certification. Counties must certify their results by November 13, and the state must certify them by November 20.
