East Point voters sent wrong ballots

EAST POINT, Ga. - Fulton County and East Point City leaders are warning voters in East Point to double-check their ballots to make sure they have the right one before casting it due to voters getting the wrong ballots.  

"Unfortunately, our voters are going to have to be a little bit more diligent about what Ward they're in and who they vote for," said current East Point City Council Member Joshua Butler IV.  

"It's really unfortunate that this happened…everyone deserves to have an easy voting process," said Carrie Ziegler candidate for East Point City Council Ward B.  

She says when early voting started, she got calls from voters in her ward who said she wasn’t on their ballot.  

"They are getting the wrong ballot. They're getting the ballot from the ward that they used to live in," Ziegler said.  

"This should not be happening. It really should not be happening," said candidate for City Council Ward C and former Mayor Earnestine Pittman.

She says she got similar calls from voters in her ward, including from one voter who told her she had to go back and forth with poll workers for over an hour before they would give her the ballot for the correct ward she lived in.  

"She stayed there an hour and a half, and they finally found that she was indeed in Ward C," Pittman said.  

Even Butler, who legally has to reside in Ward D, got the ballot for a Ward he doesn’t live in now.  

"Unfortunately, even I as a council person had an error," he said.  

He says the city redrew its ward map this year based on the most up-to-date census numbers.  

And Fulton County, who administers the city’s elections, told us the city gave them ward boundary lines that didn’t match the new official boundaries adopted by the city council.

We asked city officials about this error, but they didn’t respond as of Friday night.    

"We’re working very hard to correct those errors," Butler said.    

Poll workers have now put signs on the doors of polling places warning voters to not cast their ballot if it is not the one that matches the ward they live in but to alert Poll workers who will get them the correct ballot.    

"Check your ballot to make sure you are voting in the correct ward," Butler said.  

"We don't want people to cast their ballot in the wrong ward and then have that be an issue where they're not able to redo their ballot," Ziegler said.  

FOX 5 did talk to one voter who said that happened to him and his wife and who is now wondering whether their ballots will be counted.  

Early voting runs until Nov. 3 and Election Day is on Nov. 7.  

Here is Fulton County’s full statement regarding the ballot issues:  

Fulton County Department of Registration & Elections is aware of some boundary line issues with the City of East Point's Council Ward assignments. After review, it has been determined that redistricting changes that were submitted and approved by the city had some variance from the final boundary lines adopted. Upon discovery, corrective measures were put in place to advise voters of their correct City Ward. City of East Point voters are asked to please review their ballot before casting their vote. Based on participation in early voting for this election, we do not expect this issue to affect the outcome of any elections.