SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — Editor's Note: The video in this story is from Raffensperger's Tuesday morning news conference.
Georgia’s Secretary of State is seeking the immediate resignation or termination of Spalding County’s elections supervisor.
In a news release issued Tuesday afternoon, Sec. Brad Raffensperger and the county’s legislative delegation alleged serious management issues and poor decisions made by Spalding County Elections Supervisor Marcia Ridley.
Raffensperger says Georgians had to wait an average of 3 minutes to vote on Election Day, but not voters in Spalding County. He says Ridley’s actions “denied voters a quick and reliable voting experience.”
He says it started when the county had problems that morning with getting its voting systems up and running, and that Ridley instructed election workers to use provisional ballots instead of emergency ballots when the equipment wasn’t working.
Emergency ballots are processed immediately like regular ballots; provisional ballots are not.
Raffensperger writes that in doing that, she violated the state’s established election process and possibly state law.
He also says that Ridley spread a baseless and inaccurate rumor about updates to the voting system the night before the election that harmed election integrity and provided talking points for those seeking to undermine confidence in the election process.
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