Voters upset polling location is on campus of nursing home with major COVID-19 outbreak

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — In the June primary, voters at a Union City polling place waited up to eight hours in line. Some were there past midnight.

That location is also home to a nursing home with a major COVID-19 outbreak.

Concerned South Fulton residents reached out to Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Justin Gray because they’re scheduled to vote there again.

“I waited 5 hours to vote,” said Union City resident Kathy B.

She voted in the June primary at Christian City in south Fulton. The polling place was located on the campus of a nursing home hit hard by the coronavirus.

After all those problems, Kathy was surprised to see that she’s assigned to vote there again in November.

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“Naturally, I just thought the polling place would have been moved,” she said.

Gray went to Fulton County’s unveiling of a new early voting truck to ask elections director Richard Barron about the concerns.

“We’ve reassigned a number of voters away from that site to other sites and then the mayor of Union City we spoke with them the mayor of Union City asked us to keep that there,” Barron said.

Fulton County has shifted 2/3rds of the voters who were assigned to Christian City to other locations. But Kathy is just as concerned about safety.

State data we pulled shows there have been 28 COVID-19 deaths at Christian city.

“It’s so important that we go and exercise our right to vote and there shouldn’t be any obstacles or anxiety about going and doing that,” Kathy said.

Christian City’s CEO Keith Horton says voters will be in a separate building from nursing home residents. He also tells us there will be no contact between residents and voters

“Absolutely no connection. We’re well over 100 yards, a football field away from the residents who stay in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities,” said Horton.

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