这格鲁吉亚选举余波长时间的排队、投票设备的问题、投票人员的短缺以及一系列其他问题，让这个问题变得更加复杂选举在冠状病毒时代，美国已经陷入混乱——预示着秋季将面临更严峻的挑战。
“任何一个州都不应该像今天的佐治亚州那样，”2018年竞选州长失败的著名佐治亚州民主党人斯塔西·亚伯拉罕斯(Stacey Abrams)在周二一整天的亲自投票即将结束时表示。但是，在冠状病毒危机爆发以来已经举行初选的州，如威斯康星州、宾夕法尼亚州和俄亥俄州，选民面临着类似的失败和令人不安的局面。
“到目前为止，我们看到的是，是的，大多数人都能投票，这是个好消息。但是如果你愿意的话，我们正在看到这些热点，”迈克尔·麦克唐纳说，他是一位选举专家，也是佛罗里达大学的政治学教授。“它们不仅仅是零星的，它们更为普遍。”
“如果现在选举系统不堪重负，”麦克唐纳说，当时投票率可能只有大选预期投票率的一半或三分之一，“这对11月来说不是好兆头。”
周二，佐治亚州第二号州选举官员乔丹·富克斯在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时称初选是“一次成功的选举”，他指出，在100多万选民缺席投票后，“大规模的投票率”标志着今年返回的缺席选票增加了2500%。
但在投票的最初几个小时，精心准备的工作很快就被取消了，因为人手不足、投票开始时间推迟、缺席投票请求未得到满足以及新投票设备丢失或出现故障的报告导致了长时间排队，选民报告说要等上3个小时。
2020年6月2日，费城，人们在等待初选投票。
2020年6月2日，费城，人们在等待初选投票。约书亚·罗伯茨/路透社
“真是一团糟，”格温内特县民主党主席比安卡·基顿在谈到周二的选举时说。她告诉美国广播公司新闻，投票一开始，她的手机就开始“关机”，在格温内特县的投票点显示“门关着，灯关着，没有人在那里”，格温内特县是该州人口第二多的县，覆盖了亚特兰大的东北郊区。
基顿因冠状病毒缺席了选举，他形容格温内特的问题不像富尔顿和迪卡布县那样“可怕”，在这两个县，大部分问题都被报道了。但是，她说，“它确实影响了我们民主党的很多选区。”富尔顿是亚特兰大大部分地区的所在地，而迪卡尔布覆盖了东部城市的郊区。
但是对于有大量少数民族人口的县来说，延迟并不新鲜。长等待时间，根据布伦南中心的一份新报告在2018年中期选举中，黑人选民平均比白人选民多等待45%，拉丁裔选民多等待46%。
在一个倾向红色的战场州，混乱的初选导致了互相指责，两党互相指责。州共和党批评县一级的“无能”，而州民主党则直接将责任归咎于州务卿、共和党人布拉德·拉芬伯格。
反过来，拉芬伯格指责只有富尔顿和迪卡布县的地方官员，称该州其他地方几乎没有问题。但在投票于下午7点结束时，20个县已经延长了投票时间，以弥补全天的延误。根据亚伯拉罕创立的投票权倡导组织公平斗争行动(Fair Fight Action)，在富尔顿、科布和迪卡布县的至少41个选区，选民和志愿者报告了机器停机、临时选票短缺和延迟开放等问题。
“最好的意图遭遇最糟糕的准备，我们发现自己既无能又渎职，”亚伯拉罕在周二晚些时候的新闻发布会上说。
2020年4月7日，在密尔沃基河畔高中外，人们排着长队等待投票。威斯康星州的美国人在一场有争议的投票中投票...更多
2020年4月7日，在密尔沃基河畔高中外，人们排着长队等待投票。威斯康辛州的美国人在一场有争议的总统初选中投票，尽管全州范围内都有在家投票的规定，并且担心这次选举会使成千上万的选民和投票工作人员暴露在冠状病毒之下。卡米尔·克扎克辛斯基/法新社
拉芬伯格星期二晚间宣布，他将对富尔顿和迪卡布县的选举过程展开调查。
“今天在富尔顿和迪卡布县某些选区的投票情况是不可接受的，”他说。“我的办公室已经展开了一项调查，以确定这些县在11月选举前需要做些什么来解决这些问题。显然，第一次使用新的投票系统会有一个学习曲线，而在大流行中投票只会增加这些困难。但是其他每个县都面临着同样的问题，并且都做好了更充分的准备来应对，这样选民就有了投票的机会。”
但是佐治亚州，这个在大流行期间最大的竞选州，并不是第一个被选举蓝图的快速变化所压倒的州。这只是应对挑战的最新一个州——尽管它确实有最多的时间准备——如果病毒持续存在，它为11月份的选举提供了一个令人不安的预演。
四月初，威斯康星州，第一个在高度封锁的情况下举行选举的州，打破了向后加载主日历的状态包看来他们决心坚持举行混乱的春季选举。但事实证明，迅速转向扩大缺席投票机制的任务过于艰巨。
过了一会儿一系列混乱的紧急命令和最后一刻的法律争论威斯康星州的选举是在激烈的党派争斗和冠状病毒的背景下展开的，成千上万的选民戴着面具和手套投票，排着长队，彼此保持6英尺的安全距离。
延误的部分原因是近60%的威斯康星市政府报告选举志愿者短缺，111个辖区报告说他们甚至不能为一个投票站配备工作人员。该州最大的城市密尔沃基只有五个投票站，而不是历史上选举日的180个投票站。
亲自投票几天后，问题还没有结束。州选举官员仍在努力解决缺席选票的两个独立问题:在邮寄中心发现了数十张从未投递的缺席选票，并指导当地的工作人员在选举后一天没有邮戳的情况下退回一些缺席选票后，努力计算出哪些选票需要清点。选举结果直到选举后一周才公布。
民主党全国委员会主席汤姆·佩雷斯称这个中西部关键州的选举是“用类固醇压制选民”四年前，唐纳德·特朗普仅以23，000张选票(不到一个百分点)赢得了獾州，这是30多年来第一个赢得该州的共和党人。
威斯康星已经成为其他州的第一个测试案例，这些州正在寻求在大流行期间进行选举的未知领域。
“我们收到的一份礼物是威斯康星州，”南达科他州的州务卿、共和党人史蒂夫·巴尼特在该州6月2日初选前告诉美国广播公司新闻。“他们不能模仿任何人——我们都在一旁看着他们。”
这个房间处理所有缺席的选票，这些选票是从佛罗里达州迈阿密戴德县的这个中心的其他选区返回的，2012年11月2日。
这个房间处理所有缺席的选票，这些选票是从佛罗里达州迈阿密戴德县的这个中心的其他选区返回的，2012年11月2日。米歇尔·桑德伯格/科比斯通过盖蒂图像公司
威斯康辛州选举官员现在的目标是尽量减少他们在大选中的失误。在尸检总结由州选举委员会撰写，官员们研究了围绕春季选举的问题，并概述了未来几个月的“经验教训”。委员会注意到的变化之一是通过条形码在整个邮寄投票过程中跟踪缺席选票，以避免更多的选票丢失。
在威斯康辛州之前几周，俄亥俄州原定于3月中旬举行初选。但是由于最后一刻的法律挑战和州卫生部门的单方面决定，亲自投票被关闭，选举被推迟到威斯康辛后三周。
即使在4月底初选前的日子里，快速过渡到全邮件选举遇到了一些问题当邮政服务的延误让一些选民没有缺席投票也没有追索权以确保他们的选票被计算在内。
虽然选举官员基本上同意共和党州长迈克·德温在疫情爆发期间关闭现场投票站的决定，但他们担心州立法机构管理全邮件选举的时间表过于紧迫，这是一个过高的目标。
俄亥俄州选举官员协会的执行董事艾伦·奥克曼在4月投票截止日期前几天告诉美国广播公司新闻，“在这一点上，我们真的无能为力”。“这不是一个现实的时间表。那是法定的时间表。但是，当我们展望未来时，从中解脱出来，给选民更多的时间将选票投给选举委员会，肯定会非常非常有帮助。”
在其他关键的摇摆州，如宾夕法尼亚州，该州上周在6月2日进行了投票，扩大邮件投票的重大努力并没有抵消选举日现场投票网站出现的问题。
上周二，在该州最大的城市费城，由于工人短缺和整合，投票站减少了77%。
在邮寄投票方面，由于缺席选票增加了17倍，收到选票的截止日期是周二，选票仍在初选后一周多的时间内被统计。
目前尚不清楚冠状病毒将对秋季选举产生多大影响，但在像宾夕法尼亚州这样的州，特朗普对希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)的支持率仅为44292票，初选中推迟的竞选电话加剧了人们的担忧，即随着选举官员继续处理选票，11月3日的选举结果可能几天内都不会公布。
“这种激增是一回事，但我认为我们在11月可以期待更多，”国务卿凯西·布克瓦在宾夕法尼亚州初选之夜说。“即使现在没有COVID-19人，你知道，也要先知道这种情况的存在，并有这么大的参与量，我们很可能会再次看到这一点。”
其影响甚至更令人担忧总统继续表示怀疑关于邮件投票的完整性，称之为“腐败”,并在没有证据的情况下争辩说，欺诈的时机已经成熟。专家告诉美国广播公司新闻，邮件投票没有普遍的欺诈行为。
麦克唐纳说:“我不知道11月份会发生什么，我希望大多数人能够浏览邮件系统，投一张邮件选票，我们将从这些初选中吸取教训，为11月做好更充分的准备。”。“那是我的希望...[，但]我认为我们应该为11月将会有一些失败的事实做好准备，我在这里的另一个希望或祈祷是，选举具有足够的决定性，无论我们在11月遇到什么问题，都不会对选举结果产生重大影响。”
但一些长期的民主党战略家对11月的担忧在格鲁吉亚战争后更加尖锐。
“我非常担心我们国家的选举准备工作，”美国最大的民主联盟外团体“优先事项”的主席凯·赛西尔在选举后第二天的新闻发布会上对记者说。“这不仅仅是格鲁吉亚的问题，也不仅仅是南方的问题。这种情况在全国各州都有发生。”
'This is not just a Georgia problem': Primary election troubles foreshadow challenges for November
The election fallout in Georgia, compounded by hours-long lines, problems with voting equipment, poll worker shortages and a host of other issues, follows a familiar fate of states where elections have plunged into chaos in the age of coronavirus -- foreshadowing graver challenges awaiting in the fall.
"No state should look like Georgia did today," Stacey Abrams, a prominent Georgia Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, said toward the end of a long day of in-person voting on Tuesday. But voters in states that have already held primaries since the onset of the coronavirus crisis -- such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio -- faced similar failures and unsettling scenes.
"What we're seeing so far is that, yes, most people are able to vote, that's the good news. But we are seeing these hotspots, if you will," said Michael McDonald, an expert on elections and a political science professor at the University of Florida. "They're not just sporadic, they're more widespread."
"If the system is overwhelmed now," McDonald said, when turnout is likely to be about half or a third of the expected turnout for the general election, "that does not bode well for November."
Leading into Tuesday, Georgia's number two state election official, Jordan Fuchs, called the primary "a successful election" in an interview with ABC News, pointing to the "massive amount of turnout in the middle of a pandemic" after more than a million voters cast their ballots absentee -- marking a more than 2,500% increase in returned absentee ballots this year.
But in the first few hours of voting, the best-laid preparations were quickly dismantled, as deficits in staffing, delayed poll openings, outstanding requests for absentee ballots and reports of missing or malfunctioning new voting equipment led to long lines, with voters reporting waiting for up to three hours.
Joshua Roberts/ReutersPeople wait to vote in the primary election in Philadelphia, June 2, 2020.People wait to vote in the primary election in Philadelphia, June 2, 2020.
"It was a mess," said Bianca Keaton, the chair of the Gwinnett County Democratic Party, of Tuesday's election. Her phone started "going off" as soon as polls opened, she told ABC News, with messages that "doors were closed, lights were off, there was no one there" at polling locations across Gwinnett County, the second-most populous county in the state that covers the northeastern suburbs of Atlanta.
Keaton, who voted absentee in the election due to the coronavirus, described the issues in Gwinnett as not "as dire" as Fulton and DeKalb counties, where a large portion of the problems were being reported. But, she said, "It definitely impacted a lot of our Democratic precincts." Fulton is home to most of Atlanta and DeKalb covers the suburbs of the city to the east.
But delays are not new to counties with significant minority populations. Long wait times, according to a new report from the Brennan Center, disproportionately impacted minorities across the country in the 2018 midterm elections, with black voters waiting on average 45% longer than white voters, and Latino voters 46% longer.
MORE: Election officials gear up for single biggest day of voting during coronavirus, as Trump rails against vote by mail
The messy primary day in a red-leaning battleground state led to finger-pointing, with both parties trading blame. The state GOP criticized "incompetence" at the county level while the state Democratic Party put the blame squarely on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican.
Raffensperger, in turn, faulted local officials in only Fulton and DeKalb counties, saying there were few issues elsewhere in the state. But by the time polls closed at 7 p.m., 20 counties had extended polling hours to compensate for the delays throughout the day. In at least 41 precincts across Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb counties, voters and volunteers reported issues with machines being down, shortages of provisional ballot and delayed openings, according to Fair Fight Action, the voting rights advocacy organization founded by Abrams.
"The best intentions met the worst preparations, and we found ourselves in the midst of both incompetence and malfeasance," Abrams said at a press conference late Tuesday night.
Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty ImagesPeople wait in long line to vote in a presidential primary election outside the Riverside High School in Milwaukee, on April 7, 2020. Americans in Wisconsin casts ballots in a controversial... morePeople wait in long line to vote in a presidential primary election outside the Riverside High School in Milwaukee, on April 7, 2020. Americans in Wisconsin casts ballots in a controversial presidential primary held despite a state-wide stay-at-home order and concern that the election could expose thousands of voters and poll workers to the coronavirus.
Raffensperger announced late Tuesday that he is opening an investigation into the Fulton and DeKalb counties' election processes.
"The voting situation today in certain precincts in Fulton and Dekalb counties is unacceptable," he said. "My office has opened an investigation to determine what these counties need to do to resolve these issues before November’s election. Obviously, the first time a new voting system is used there is going to be a learning curve, and voting in a pandemic only increased these difficulties. But every other county faced these same issues and were significantly better prepared to respond so that voters had every opportunity to vote."
But Georgia, which is the largest state to struggle with running an election during a pandemic, is not the first state to become overwhelmed by the rapid changes to election blueprints. It is only the latest state to wrestle with the challenges -- although it did have the most time to prepare -- offering an unnerving preview of a potential November election if the virus persists.
In early April, Wisconsin, the first state to hold an election at the height of a lockdown, broke from the pack of states backloading the primary calendar -- seeming determined to stay on course to hold its chaotic spring election. But the undertaking to quickly shift to an expanded absentee voting apparatus proved to be too tall an order.
After a chaotic series of emergency orders and last-minute legal wrangling, Wisconsin's election unfolded against the backdrop of bitter partisan feuding and the coronavirus, with thousands of voters casting their ballots wearing masks and gloves and standing in long lines while keeping a safe distance of six feet from one another.
The delays were due in part to nearly 60% of Wisconsin municipalities reporting a shortage of election volunteers, and 111 jurisdictions reporting they could not staff even one polling place. Milwaukee, the state's largest city, only had five polling locations instead of the 180 that historically operate on election day.
Days after in-person voting, the problems were not over. State election officials were still grappling with two separate issues with absentee ballots: scores of missing ones that were never delivered were found at mailing centers, and guiding local clerks who were struggling to figure out which ballots to count after some absentee ballots were returned without postmarks the day after the election. Results from the contest weren't released until a week after the election.
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez called the election, in the pivotal Midwestern state, "voter suppression on steroids." Four years ago, Donald Trump carried the Badger state, the first Republican to do so in over 30 years, by only about 23,000 votes, or less than one percentage point.
Wisconsin has become the first test case for other states that are seeking to navigate the uncharted terrain of running elections during a pandemic.
"One gift we were given is Wisconsin," South Dakota Secretary of State Steve Barnett, a Republican, told ABC News just before the state's June 2 primary. "They weren't able to model after anybody else -- we were all on the sidelines kind of watching them."
Michele Sandberg/Corbis via Getty ImagesThis room processes all absentee ballots that are returned from other precincts in this hub in Miami Dade Country, in Florida, Nov. 2, 2012.This room processes all absentee ballots that are returned from other precincts in this hub in Miami Dade Country, in Florida, Nov. 2, 2012.
State election officials in Wisconsin are now aiming to minimize their mistakes for the general election. In a postmortem summary written by the state's elections commission, the officials examined the problems surrounding the spring election and outlined "lessons learned" for the coming months. Among the changes the commission noted is tracking absentee ballots throughout the vote-by-mail process through barcodes to avoid more missing ballots.
A few weeks before Wisconsin, Ohio was initially scheduled to hold its primary in mid-March. But due to eleventh-hour legal challenges and a unilateral decision by the state's health department, in-person voting was shut down and the election was postponed until three weeks after Wisconsin.
Even in the days leading up to the late April primary, the quick transition to an all-mail election hit some hiccups when delays with the Postal Service left some voters without an absentee ballot and no recourse to make sure their vote was counted.
While elections officials largely agreed with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s decision to shutter in-person polling sites during the outbreak, they worried that the state legislature’s tight timeline to administer an all-mail election was too lofty a goal.
"At this point, there's really nothing that can be done," Aaron Ockerman, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials told ABC News just days before the ballot deadline in April. "That's not a realistic timeframe. That's a statutory timeframe. But certainly as we look into the future, relief from that and giving voters more time to get their ballots into the board of elections, would be very, very helpful."
In other key swing states, such as Pennsylvania, which voted last week on June 2, significant efforts to expand vote-by-mail did not offset issues that emerged at in-person voting sites on election day.
Last Tuesday, in the state's largest city, Philadelphia, there was a 77% reduction in polling sites due to worker shortages and consolidations.
On the mail-in voting front, due to a 17-fold increase in absentee ballots, and the deadline for receiving ballots landing on Tuesday, votes are still being counted more than week after the primary.
It still isn't clear how much the coronavirus will impact elections in the fall, but in a state like Pennsylvania, where Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton was just 44,292 votes, delayed race calls in primaries amplify concerns that the outcome of the Nov. 3 election might not be known for days, as election officials continue to process ballots.
"This surge is one thing, but I think we could expect a lot more than this in November," Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said on night of Pennsylvania's primary. "Even without COVID-19 people now, you know, have a head start on knowing this exists and to have this amount of volume, and participation and engagement is likely we'll likely see that again."
The implications are even more worrisome with the president continuing to cast doubt over the integrity of vote-by-mail, calling it "corrupt" and arguing -- without evidence -- that it is ripe for fraud. Experts tell ABC News that there is no widespread fraud with mail voting.
"I don't know what's going to happen in November, I hope that most people will be able to navigate the mail system, and cast a mail ballot, and we're going to learn from our mistakes through these primary elections and be better prepared for November," McDonald said. "That's my hope...[but] I think we should prepare ourselves for the fact that there are going to be some failures in November, and my other hope or prayer here is going to be that the election is decisive enough that whatever problems that we have in November, are not going to be consequential to the outcome of the election."
But some longtime Democratic strategists' concerns for November are more acute after Georgia.
"I'm very concerned about our country's preparations for the election," Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA, the largest Democratic-aligned outside group, said during a press briefing with reporters on Wednesday, the day after the election. "This is not just a Georgia problem, it's not just a southern problem. This has been happening in states all across the country."
