Cobb Democratic Committee Provides Guidelines on Absentee Ballots

Jacquelyn Bettadapur, Chair of the Cobb County Democratic Committee, sent out the following important information for those who may have questions regarding their absentee ballot.

"In anticipation of this question coming up in the next few days, I reached out to Janine Eveler, Cobb Elections and asked her for the procedure when a voter has requested an absentee ballot but shows up at the polls to vote in-person. There are two cases - the voter has the absentee ballot, the voter does not have the absentee ballot."

Janine's response below.

A voter who has requested an absentee ballot or has voted early will show up on the Election Day record as “Absentee Ballot Issued”.

Situation 1 – voter has the ballot:

• The voter will surrender the ballot to the poll worker
• The worker will verify that the ballot and outer envelope are both surrendered
  • If the ballot is surrendered without the outer envelope, the worker will either get a blank envelope from their supplies and complete the label with the voter’s information or write the voter’s registration ID number onto the ballot.
• The worker will write “cancelled” on the outside of the envelope, or on the ballot itself, and put it in their records container
• The worker will tap “Documentation Provided” on the screen to allow the voter to complete the check-in process and sign the voter certificate onscreen
• The worker will encode the voter access card and hand it to the voter to use with the ballot marking device

Situation 2 – voter does not have the ballot

• The Poll Pad worker will check a box on a form indicating the voter is marked Absentee and direct the voter to the Provisional Station
• The Provisional worker, who is in charge of making calls from the poll, will review the form to know what the issue is, and contact the Main Office
  • If the Main Office confirms that the absentee ballot has not yet been received:
    • The Office worker will update the system to cancel the ballot
    • The voter will be asked to complete an Affidavit of Cancelled Absentee Ballot
    • The Voter will return to the Poll Pad station with the signed Affidavit verifying the Office has cancelled the ballot
    • The worker will take the Affidavit and put it into the records container
    • The worker will tap “Documentation Provided” on the screen to allow the voter to complete the check-in process and sign the voter certificate onscreen
    • The worker will encode the voter access card and hand it to the voter to use with the ballot marking device
  • If the Provisional worker cannot get through to the Main Office:
    • The voter will be asked to complete an Affidavit of Cancelled Absentee Ballot showing the Office could not be reached
    • The voter will vote a provisional ballot
    • During the provisional ballot period until Friday, the office will determine whether the absentee ballot was returned. If not, the provisional ballot will be counted.

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