Former Cobb elections director offers Election Day tips

Today, questions about voter intimidation, about election security and about what happens after the polls close are all things that are top of mind. So joining us now, we've got former Cobb County elections director Tate Fall to help us make sense of all of this. So certainly a big day, a perfect day for you to be joining us to talk more about this, Tate. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. OK, so let's dive right into it. What should Georgians, would you say, need to be paying attention to as they head to the polls today? I think everyone needs to make sure that they check their My Voter page, mvp.sos.ga.gov, before they leave their house, making sure your polling place hasn't changed, your registration is up to date, and then head to the correct polling place from there. I also want voters to know that your election officials have been working on this election for months and months and months, and they have prepared for scenarios that you probably couldn't even think of, and they are ready for voters. The poll workers are ready for And they're ready to serve you with a smile and help get you voted today. Okay, let's talk about something we mentioned in the introduction to you, voter intimidation. It's something that we hear about happening, even if it's something that we haven't maybe ourselves experienced or seen at the polls. So what does that look like, Tate, on the ground and what should voters know about it? It can look like a lot of different things. I think there's a lot of question marks for this election of what were we going to see in terms of maybe some federal observers. Typically, we've had really great experiences with observers with the DOJ when they come and check for ADA compliance. So again, election officials, we've been talking about this since there was first murmurs of is there going to be ICE at the polls or other officials like that. They've been preparing. They've been working with their public safety partners. Poll workers are trained to know what to look for, how to watch out for their voters. We also know what observers can and can't do, so they're prepared to help make sure voters feel safe and secure and that their vote is being cast in the way that they intend it to. So to follow up on that, who would you say is most vulnerable to these threats of intimidation during an election? I think it's going to depend. Sometimes we see voters with disabilities that are maybe getting questioned about their mental status, elderly voters getting questioned about their mental status. And then, of course, maybe any voters that English isn't their first language, if they bring someone to help them translate their ballot or translate ballot measures, they might be being looked at by observers. But again, those poll workers, they know to look out for those kinds of things and making sure that they're making sure their voters are feeling safe. So we have poll watchers, as you mentioned, we do know that. But if you maybe witness something concerning at the polls as a voter, what should you do? You should call your local election office. It's important to remember that the people who are running the elections are in that office and they have poll workers that they've trained diligently and those are the ones you're seeing on election day. So immediately call your local election office if you see something or hear something that you don't think you should. Raise it with the poll manager, the person that's in charge of that polling place, making sure that. The local person at the polling place knows what's going on and the election office knows what's going on. That way they can get a firsthand account and they can jump right in either with their law enforcement partners or whoever they need to help get to that site. So Tate, you mentioned that election officials have been working for months to make sure that things go as they should today. What are some challenges that you know that they're facing at this point and just maybe some ways that we can support them? I think Unprecedented turnout in a midterm election. Election officials always prepare for 100% turnout because you never want to be caught underprepared. But really seeing the turnout is actually exciting for election officials. We often joke that we feel like we throw parties that no one comes to. So having that increased turnout is really exciting. But it means that there's going to be a lot of people out there on election day, both voters and observers. And they have worked diligently, like I mentioned, and they're just ready to see everyone. I think of questions, like I mentioned, too, about federal observers. That's kind of a new piece of what that might look like in this election. But they're prepared for every scenario, whether they're just there observing or they're a little bit more involved. They're prepared and they know what to do. Tate, this is definitely a party that folks are showing up to. They showed up early too as well. So that of that, you know, we know. What did you, would you say that Georgians should be expecting as the polls close and the time that follows? I know that's when hopefully the results are forthcoming soon after that, but just a few things that we should expect in the hours after the polls close. Well, Georgia is great because we're one of the first states to publish a lot of our absentee votes. So we're required by law to publish all absentee votes by 8 p.m. So that's both absentee by mail and early voting. So you should see, as we've seen, record-breaking over 2 million voters voting in that. We should be able to see those results by 8 p.m. across the state. And then we'll start to see the polling places roll in as they close down at their site and escort those results in. Two people signed off on those, and they bring them back to election headquarters, you'll start to see those polling places roll in. But we should see a really great chunk of those votes in the results by 8 p.m. All right. Someone who knows this all well, the former Cobb County elections director, Tate Fall, with us this election day. Tate, thank you so much for checking in with us. We appreciate it. Thank you.