Photograph by Megan Varner/Getty Photographs
The 2020 presidential election started usually sufficient for Fulton County ballot employees. Angie Jones, a website supervisor, started her day at her polling location at 5 within the morning, however earlier than she might put together the Dominion voting machines or arrange standing areas for ballot observers, Jones was joined by the whole ballot employee group—assistant managers, clerks and technicians alike— Reciting and signing their respective State Oaths. The ritual is carried out earlier than each election, large and small, to vow that ballot employees will “discharge faithfully, impartially and faithfully” their duties. “In 2020, the final election went easily for us, and nothing stood out as uncommon,” Jones stated. “[But] Once we have been closing in on seven o’clock within the night and Donald Trump was going to lose Georgia, the main target was on us.”
Fulton County is a majority-Democrat county that features many of the metropolis of Atlanta. Comprised of 11 % of the state’s voters, no county carries extra weight with regards to swing states. After President Biden received Georgia in 2020, then-President Trump and his former marketing campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani zeroed in on Fulton County, accusing ballot employees there of poll stuffing and spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud. In 2024, an investigation by the Georgia Secretary of State’s workplace discovered proof that Fulton County ballot employees had scanned some ballots twice, however discovered no proof of fraud or collusion. Charlene McGowan, the secretary of state’s basic counsel, later insisted that the duplicate scan had not modified the end result of the election. In response, unbiased screens have been appointed to observe Fulton County elections in the course of the basic election this November.
Jones has labored on a number of native and nationwide elections in Fulton County since 2018 and stated claims of misconduct and collusion have grow to be frequent. Voters have claimed entry to polling websites whereas carrying candidate merchandise, which is in opposition to state regulation, or attempting to vote in different precincts after their designated precincts have closed. One individual asserted to Jones, with out proof, that undocumented immigrants have been voting illegally. “Ninety % of individuals vote with out a downside and go about their day,” Jones stated. “There’s solely 10 % that get ugly and make calls for. My concern is that 90 % would have been 99, and 10 % would have been 1.”
When Jones was rising up, his household was lively in politics; His uncle was a state senator and his father was a Republican marketing campaign volunteer. His political awakening comes after his pal’s son comes out as homosexual, and each church households subsequently shun Jones’ pal. “I used to be shocked that one thing so horrible might occur to somebody I really like,” Jones stated. “I questioned all the things I believed in on the time and I noticed that there was one thing flawed with my beliefs and the politics concerned.” The incident impressed him to grow to be extra politically lively. He volunteered for John Ossoff’s US Home marketing campaign in 2017 and have become a Fulton County ballot employee the next 12 months. “Once I go to a polling place, I am there to serve the general public, and never as a partisan — that is why we begin with the oath,” Jones stated.
On this election, he’ll function a compliance officer, visiting six completely different precincts to confirm that they’re following state regulation. “Our coaching would not change for the higher, however all ballot employees are extra conscious that there are unhealthy actors,” Jones stated. “To say we’re on the sting is simply too robust of a phrase, however I do know now that individuals will need to disrupt our course of.”
This text appeared in our November 2024 challenge.
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