Cobb County elections staff report 28,995 ballots, flag UOCAVA and vendor delivery problems ahead of certification

Elections staff presented preliminary, pre-certification results to the Cobb County Board of Elections on April 10, reporting 12,010 early votes and a reconciled grand total of 28,995 ballots.

Michael, the staff member leading the elections materials review, gave site-by-site early voting counts — North 2,424; Northwest 3,419; West 4,257; Kennesaw 1,910 — and said the pattern was a steady flow that staff hopes to replicate in the larger May election. "Our total votes cast 12,010," he said, and added, "We love it when the numbers match," after reconciling parallel system reports.

Staff reported 447 absentee-by-mail ballots in total and noted up to 16 UOCAVA ballots could be added if overseas mailings arrive by the 5:00 p.m. cure deadline. Michael told the board there were two absentee provisionals and 23 election-day provisionals; 20 of the election-day provisionals were out-of-precinct and expected to count while three voters who said they had registered in time likely would not.

Officials disclosed a two-vote discrepancy between EMS and Jarvis participation totals attributable to two voters in the "vote safe" program who appear in EMS but not in Jarvis; staff said reconciliation work is ongoing. Michael also identified three spoiled ballots: one at Acworth (a probable printer jam) and selection-change errors at Lost Mountain 04 and Mars Hill 01.

Board members pressed staff about UOCAVA electronic ballot delivery (EBD) and a puzzling pattern in which ballots appeared to be issued and returned in disparate countries within a two-day span. Michael said the problem stemmed from batching/issue-date anomalies and that a state-supplied update intended to fix the issue had not fully resolved it. "It was basically an error on Enhanced," he said, referring to the EBD vendor; staff said Marcus will investigate and that they plan to correct issue dates after the election to make internal records consistent.

Michael reminded the board that the county is certifying its own reconciled data, not the Secretary of State's raw output, noting, "The Secretary of State does not audit the data that they put out." He said staff distributed numbered reconciliation lists and flash-drive copies of the Jarvis reports for board review.

The board did not take final certification action at the April 10 meeting; the next scheduled certification meeting is April 13. Staff said they will continue to reconcile outstanding items and follow up on the UOCAVA/EBD issues before certification.