MACON, Ga. — We're just under four months until the general election this fall. The primary election in May saw an unprecedented number of voters using absentee ballots because of COVID-19. Election leaders are already looking for ways to handle even more mail-in ballots in November.
During a typical presidential election, places like Houston County may see 3,000 to 4,000 absentee ballots. Andy Holland with the Houston County Board of Elections says they had to count a lot more than that during the election in June.
"We processed over 22,000 requests for absentee ballots, got back over 16,000," Holland said.
Election officials in Bibb County processed more than 18,000 absentee ballots.
"The big adjustment for us was dealing with the increase volume of absentee by mail."
Holland shared those growing pains with a committee at the state house in late June to see what went right during this recent election and what needs to improve. For Holland, it all boils down to time.
"Give us more time leading up to the election to count the ballots, managing to get an extra week to open and count them, I think we may need a little longer, if that's possible," said Holland.
Holland says in Houston County, things went relatively smoothly with the new machines and all the absentee ballots during the June primary. He plans to train his poll workers even more so they're ready for even bigger turnout in November.
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