Most voters at Greenbriar East Elementary (GBE) didn’t want to reveal specifics about which candidates they voted for on Tuesday, but they did share their reasons for casting their ballots, in general.
Greg McTure, of the North Lake community, said he’s always voted. “Growing up in Atlanta, my mom used to take me with her when she voted,” he said. “And I took my daughter, too, except for today. She turned 20 on Saturday, and voted on her own, for the first time. She was very excited about it.”
As for himself, McTure doesn’t necessarily vote according to political party. Instead, he said, “I’ve always voted for the candidate I feel best communicates their understanding of the issues – and agrees with the ones I believe in.”
The main concern of Fair Ridge’s Erich Klaus was transportation. “When I got to the transportation referendum, I wondered how much they wasted building the HOT lanes and toll roads, while taking away lanes from me,” he said. “Those roads were originally built with our taxes, and now they’ve been taken away.”
Walking into the school with his two, young children was Alan Tong of Fair Lakes. “I’m voting for [Mark] Warner [for senator] for health-care spending; that’s the major issue I’m interested in,” he said. “I have kids, and I want to show them it’s important to vote.”
Greenbriar’s Shaun Garrison voted yes on both referendums. “Anybody who serves the country should get rights above and beyond what I get,” he said. “And transportation around here [is terrible], so anything that can help with it, I’m definitely for.” He also said he and his wife, Eyang, came out to vote because they “care how the Senate ends up.”
Kimberley Lohmann of Gray’s Pointe didn’t mind sharing her thoughts on the election. “I don’t like the economy and the way the government’s going,” she said. “I want to see some change, so I voted Republican.”
Greenbriar’s Debra Popoli said she came “to participate in the voting process. It’s important to exercise our democratic right to do so.”
Russell Stromberg of Fair Lakes was happy with the status quo. “I like our current senator and congressman, so I wanted to make sure they stay in there,” he said. “And I voted yes on both the referendums – you’ve got to have decent roads, and you can’t do enough for the veterans.”
Leigh Ann Bishop of Greenbriar said she believed it was her civic duty to cast her ballot. “I feel like an off year is the most important time to come out and vote because not enough people do it then,” she said.
Election officer Margarita Morales said voters came to GBE all day at a “pretty steady pace.” She and her co-workers checked them in. “We ask for a photo ID and we confirm [via computer] that they’re registered to vote in this precinct,” said Morales. “Then they go get a paper ballot, which is fed into a digital machine for scanning.”
But that’s not all. “We also have an ExpressVote machine which people with certain disabilities, such as hand tremors and vision problems, or language issues, can use,” said GBE chief election officer Sue Marcus. “If they can’t fill in little ovals on a sheet, they can press a large bar on this screen. And if they’re blind, they can use the Braille touch pad.”
Besides all that, she said, “We can make the screen larger, change the contrast or change the [ballot] questions and directions into Spanish. We were told to think of this as a 25-pound pencil because it prints out people’s completed ballots, which can then be fed into the regular, voting machine.”
Overall, Marcus was pleased with the number of residents who voted at GBE. “We had 12 people in line when we opened at 6 a.m.; but after that, things slowed down,” she said. “However, by 5:40 p.m., of the more than 3,000 people registered to vote here, 1,013 had voted – which is a pretty good turnout for a midterm election.”