“Pandemic Forces Georgia Counties To Get Creative With Polling Places,” WABE

In an article published on November 2, 2020 in WABE, Bryan Tyson provides insight on the ways counties are getting creative on election day in regards to polling locations. 

“Finding facilities has gotten more challenging,” said Tyson. “It’s been great work by county officials to do their best in a time where a lot of people don’t want hundreds of unknown individuals coming into their facility on Election Day.” 

Tyson explains that the use of schools as polling places was beginning to fall out of favor even before COVID-19. “Concerns about school security and having lots of people who would not otherwise be at a school on a particular day, has led to a lot of school districts saying we’d rather not have public schools used as voting facilities,” said Tyson.

And now, with extra space being an important factor, places like Ponce City Market, The Fox Theater and even an old Sears Building at Stonecrest Mall are among the private buildings being used as Election Day polling sites. Tyson says it’s up to each county to work out the details ahead of time to make sure the facilities will serve voters’ needs. “They would obviously look at how much parking is there, what is the room size, can we successfully set up the equipment in this facility,” said Tyson.  

Many counties across Georgia are using grant funding to pay for a post-election scrubbing of the buildings, to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. More than 90 polling places have changed in Fulton County for Tuesday’s election, some because of the pandemic. 

Voters in Fulton and across Georgia who plan to vote on Election Day are being encouraged to check the My Voter Page to make sure they know which polling site they are assigned to.