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Dear Decaturish – More ballot dropboxes are needed to protect the election

campaign coverage Editor's Pick Metro ATL

Dear Decaturish – More ballot dropboxes are needed to protect the election

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Official Absentee Ballot Drop Box at 4380 Memorial Drive in greater Decatur. Photo by Dean Hesse.
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Dear Decaturish,

President Trump has admitted to deliberating sabotaging the U.S. postal service to prevent mail-in voting, and he apparently has the power to do so. The postal service has warned that it may not be able to deliver ballots on time based on current election rules.

This makes it imperative that our election officials place ballot drop boxes in every neighborhood to help stymy this blatant attempt at voter suppression, so that every person’s ballot may be counted. But Dekalb County has only eight locations for ballot drop offs.

In my case the closest location from my home is 5.2 miles. Our county commission and election officials should do whatever it takes to ensure that no voter has to travel more than one mile to reach a ballot drop-off box.

Our elected officials need to hear from us now, while there is still time to plan and implement, to make this happen.

A web page listing the Election Board members and their email addresses is here:

Board of Registration & Elections | DeKalb County, GA

– Jim Skillman

Editor’s note: Decaturish contacted the DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections to ask about the possibility of placing more drop boxes throughout the county. Board member Baoky Vu said the city government has to allow the board to install a dropbox, it has to have handicap access and 24-hour surveillance. 

“We always reach out to each city within the county and some are ok with it, some aren’t and some don’t respond,” he said. “We have to have an assurance of security or else we get blamed.” 

He said the board is asking the county attorney to provide guidance about placing the boxes in locations that aren’t controlled by government entities, like Emory University. 

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