NAACP says Macon voting districts had wrong ballots. How county is addressing it

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With only nine days left until early voting closes, the NAACP’s Macon-Bibb branch is concerned after Macon-Bibb County voters in five districts were allegedly given wrong ballots.

Gwenette Westbrooks, head of the local NAACP chapter, said some voters in Districts 2, 4, 6 and 9, including at precincts Warrior 1, Howard, and Hazzard, were given ballots for the wrong districts. District 7 was also impacted, according to the county Elections Board.

“For a person to cast their vote, and then a vote not even get counted for the correct district, it sends a message that we’re dealing with the same issues from 50 years ago, where voter suppression took place,” Westbrooks told The Telegraph.

A candidate from District 6 first informed the NAACP on May 3 about the discrepancy, Westbrooks said. They later found out other districts had the same problem.

“Some people could not vote for a candidate because they were not on their ballot,” Westbrooks said.

Thomas Gillon, elections supervisor of the county, mentioned how the discrepancy impacted the five districts when contacted by The Telegraph.

How Macon-Bibb County addressed ballot issue

Gillon told The Telegraph that some voters in District 6 noticed their electronic ballots were actually meant for District 9. He said recent redistricting of the county – updated in December due to the latest U.S. Census results – may have sent ballots to the wrong precincts.

Voters in District 6 brought the discrepancy to poll workers’ attention, Gillon said. The Elections Board then inspected the ballots, and discovered some precincts in the electronic “poll bed” system, which creates voter cards, hadn’t updated since the county commission’s redistricting.

“We started looking at each voter in our registration system, which was much more correct than the system that was making voter cards,” Gillon said.

In addition to flaws within the electronic system, some voters never received updated voter cards properly assigned to their designated districts.

“Anytime there was a discrepancy we’d make a proper voter card once there was an issue … while we were working to get the voter card system updated,” he added.

Westbrooks said the same issue persisted in other districts, even after District 6 was given District 9 ballots.

“Nobody voted the wrong ballot,” Gillon said. However, he added, “Even if we had one, that was too many. We haven’t had that many people’s vote, so we can’t have had that many people vote wrongly.”

It is unclear whether the issue was solved in time before any ballots could actually be submitted, Gillon noted.

The Elections Board is still reviewing all ballots to ensure they list District 6’s correct candidates.

“Now that we think all those problems have been resolved, we’re still looking at voters both ways to make sure the correct ballot gets to them,” Gillon said. “We’ve hopefully caught the vast majority of issues that we’ve had.”

As of Monday, only about 2% of registered voters in Macon-Bibb had participated in advance voting, according to the Board of Elections’ daily voting report. Early voting for the 2024 primary election began April 29, and ends May 17.

It is unclear whether District 9 voters also received the wrong ballots.

Since the NAACP was first informed of the issue, they have informed their attorneys, who could consider further steps.

“Having the right to vote is something very near to our communities,” Westbrooks said. “Regardless of what happened or is going to happen, people need to be notified that this is taking place.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated after the Macon-Bibb branch of the NAACP clarified it is discussing the issue with attorneys but has not decided on taking further steps about the problem.