亚特兰大——根据国务卿办公室的数据，周一有超过12.8万格鲁吉亚人参加投票，创下该州第一天提前投票的纪录。
高投票率超过了2016年提前投票第一天的近91000张选票，让渴望投票的选民在全州范围内排队数小时进行投票。选举官员和倡导团体一直在推动人们提前投票，要么亲自投票，要么缺席投票，因为预计投票率将创纪录，并担心冠状病毒的暴露。
但一些潜在选民周一出现时，却发现他们的县办公室因哥伦布日假期而关闭。艾芬汉姆县居民托尼·格里姆斯告诉WTOC-TV，他请了一天假去投票，发现县政府大门被锁上了，他很沮丧选举s办公室。
“我在查塔姆县看到他们正在排队去投票，”他告诉电视台。“所以，他们现在正在投票，而我们不能。”
发言人沃尔特·琼斯说，国务卿办公室说，周一没有收到该州159个县中49个县的投票，但不清楚其中有多少县因假日关闭。
人们可以继续提前亲自投票，直到10月30日。虽然选民必须在选举日在他们指定的投票站投票，但他们可以在提前投票期间在他们居住的县的任何公开投票站投票。
在该州人口最多的县富尔顿县，周一有近2万人亲自投票，仅次于2016年提前投票的最后一天，当时约有2.6万人在该县投票选举美国导演里克·巴伦告诉记者。
巴伦鼓励要求缺席投票的人继续使用这些选票，通过邮件或投递箱提交，而不是选择亲自投票。巴伦说，当一个要求缺席投票的人出现在投票站时，处理他们需要更长的时间，因为缺席投票必须被取消，这导致了更长的队伍。
据国务卿办公室称，截至周二上午，约有160万人要求缺席投票。其中，近474，000人已经返回并被接受。
周二一些地方又形成了长队。至少有两个县，位于亚特兰大人口稠密的北郊的科布和格温内特，拥有在线等待时间跟踪工具。格温内特的跟踪器显示，大约中午时分，在主要选举办公室等待了8个小时，在其他地方等待了1到2个小时。科布的追踪器一度显示在县主要选举办公室等了五个小时。
周一，长队照片和视频在社交媒体上广泛传播后，一些选举诚信倡导者和当选官员表示，这是压制选民的证据，并呼吁选举官员采取措施立即采取行动。
但其他人敦促要有耐心。
加州大学欧文分校的选举法教授里克·哈森周一晚上在推特上写道:“选举官员的资源有限——尤其是在疫情期间。”。“投票第一天的巨大热情导致长队并不一定意味着存在系统性问题。让我们给它几天时间。”
近年来，格鲁吉亚的选举引起了全国的关注。今年6月，该州的初选因设备问题和高投票率导致的长队、与冠状病毒有关的投票站整合以及投票工作人员短缺而受到破坏，这一局面得以延续。
对选民权利被剥夺的担忧导致了一系列与选举相关的诉讼，试图让法官下令改变。
周二，一名联邦法官驳回了民主党人8月份提出的一项诉讼，该诉讼要求他命令佐治亚州选举官员采取措施，防止选举日投票站长队。美国地方法官迈克·布朗星期二在一份命令中写道，选举官员似乎已经采取措施解决以前导致长队的问题。
“当然，有可能这些措施最终会被证明是不够的，仍然会出现长队，”他写道。“但这不是重点;包括本法院在内，没有人能够保证短线路。”
另外，美国地方法官艾米·托滕贝格(Amy Totenberg)周一晚间拒绝命令佐治亚州的投票站增加手头的紧急纸质选票数量，以便在电子投票设备出现问题的情况下继续投票。
托滕伯格写道，确定选举管理的确切细节是州和地方选举官员的责任。
Georgia breaks turnout record for first day of early voting
ATLANTA -- More than 128,000 Georgians went to the polls Monday, a record for the first day of early voting in the state, according to the secretary of state's office.
The high turnout surpassed the nearly 91,000 votes cast on the first day of early voting in 2016 and left eager voters waiting in hours-long lines across the state to cast their ballots. Election officials and advocacy groups have been pushing people to vote early, either in person or by absentee ballot, in anticipation of record turnout and concerns about coronavirus exposure.
But some would-be voters turned up Monday only to find their county offices closed for the Columbus Day holiday. Effingham County resident Tony Grimes told WTOC-TV he took the day off work to vote and was frustrated to find the door locked at the county's mainelections office.
“I see in Chatham County where they’re having lines forming for them to go and vote," he told the television station. "So, they’re voting right now, and we aren’t able to.”
The secretary of state’s office said it received no votes Monday from 49 of the state’s 159 counties, but it wasn’t clear how many of those were closed for the holiday, spokesman Walter Jones said.
People can continue to vote early in person through Oct. 30. While voters must vote at their assigned polling place on Election Day, they can vote at any open polling place in the county where they live during early voting.
In Fulton County, the state's most populous county, close to 20,000 people voted in person on Monday, second only to the last day of early voting in 2016, when about 26,000 voted, countyelections director Rick Barron told reporters.
Barron encouraged people who have requested absentee ballots to go ahead and use those, submitting them by mail or in a drop box, rather than choosing instead to vote in person. When a person who's requested an absentee ballot shows up at the polls it takes longer to process them because the absentee ballot must be canceled, contributing to longer lines, Barron said.
By Tuesday morning, about 1.6 million people had requested absentee ballots, according to the secretary of state's office. Of those, nearly 474,000 had been returned and accepted.
Long lines formed again Tuesday in some places. At least two counties, Cobb and Gwinnett in Atlanta's populous northern suburbs, have online wait time tracking tools. Gwinnett's tracker showed an eight-hour wait around midday at the main elections office and waits of one to two hours elsewhere. Cobb's tracker at one point showed a wait of five hours at the county's main elections office.
After photos and videos of long lines Monday circulated widely on social media, some election integrity advocates and elected officials said it was evidence of voter suppression and called on election officials to take steps to take immediate action.
But others urged patience.
“Election officials have limited resources — especially during the pandemic,” Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California-Irvine, tweeted Monday night. “Great enthusiasm on the first day of voting leading to long lines does not necessarily mean there's a systemic problem. Let's give it a few days.”
Georgia's elections have drawn national scrutiny in recent years. That was renewed in June when the state's primary election was marred by long lines caused by equipment problems and high turnout, as well as coronavirus-related consolidations of polling places and shortages of poll workers.
Concerns about voter disenfranchisement have resulted in a flood of election-related lawsuits seeking to have judges order changes.
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed in August by Democrats that asked him to order Georgia election officials to take steps to prevent long lines at the polls on Election Day. U.S. District Judge Michael Brown wrote in an order Tuesday that it appears election officials have taken steps to address the issues that previously caused long lines.
“It is possible, of course, these measures will ultimately prove insufficient and long lines will still arise,” he wrote. “But that is not the point; no one, including this Court, can guarantee short lines.”
Separately, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg late Monday declined to order Georgia polling places to increase the number of emergency paper ballots they have on hand to allow voting to continue if there are problems with electronic voting equipment.
Determining the precise details of election administration is the responsibility of state and local election officials, Totenberg wrote.
来源：https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/georgia-breaks-turnout-record-day-early-voting-73586285?cid=clicksource_4380645_9_film_strip_icymi_hed
