After lawsuit, Fulton County to reconsider polling location changes

Jujuan Odom, 23, votes at a voting station at the Southwest Branch Library in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. Residents of South Fulton voted today for mayor and city council positions. (DAVID BARNES / DAVID.BARNES@AJC.COM)

Jujuan Odom, 23, votes at a voting station at the Southwest Branch Library in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. Residents of South Fulton voted today for mayor and city council positions. (DAVID BARNES / DAVID.BARNES@AJC.COM)

Fulton County has decided on a do-over regarding polling location changes that affect several majority African-American precincts.

The decision came after the ACLU of Georgia sued, claiming the county elections board did not give the public enough notice about the changes before it voted in mid-July to approve them.

State law requires notice of polling location changes to be published once a week for two consecutive weeks. In this case, Fulton officials published notices in The Daily Report on July 7 and again on July 10 — a Friday and then a Monday. The board then voted to approve the changes that next Thursday, July 13.

The ACLU claims the board should have waited to vote until at least 14 days had passed, something the law does not specify.

County officials have re-published a notice about the changes, and are expected to take a second vote when the election board next meets Aug. 14.

To read more about the changes and which neighborhoods they affected, click here to read our premium story on myAJC.com.