Statesboro Herald Reports Registration Irregularity at Georgia Southern

Tucked inside an article about a record voter turnout in Bulloch County (almost 40%!) in Saturday’s Statesboro Herald was a voter registration issue caught by Patricia Lanier Jones, Bulloch County Election Supervisor, and her staff.

Apparently, 170 new registrations were filled out with assistance by an unknown organization using two different and incorrect addresses on campus at Georgia Southern University: 155 using a 1332 Southern Drive address and 15 using a 97 Georgia Avenue address. Jones stated that these issues were caught prior to early voting starting and all 170 were challenged via a resolution by the Board of Elections and Registration at their September 23rd meeting.

A hearing was then scheduled for October 12th to handle the challenges. Only one person out of the 170 impacted showed up to the hearing after notices were sent out by the Board. Georgia Southern University attempted to assist in the situation by sending out an email blast about the hearing and also attempting to forward the notices to the students via its mail center.

Ultimately, 47 of the 170 incorrect registrants were able to correct their registrations in a timely manner, while the remaining 123 were cancelled after no adequate response was provided in a timely fashion. 19 of those 123 who had their registrations cancelled cast a provisional ballot after showing up to vote during three days of early voting on campus.

Jones stated in the article that at this time she did “not believe that there was fraud on the part of the voter. In speaking with those who have used the 1332 Southern Drive address, the responses have pretty much been the same. The organization that was doing the registration drive was telling them to use the 1332 Southern Drive, which was an incorrect address.”

More provisional ballots are expected to be cast during tomorrow’s contests because of this registration issue.

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