Cobb elections board dismisses more than 1,300 voter challenges

Oct. 11—MARIETTA — The Cobb Board of Elections voted Monday to toss out more than 1,300 voter registration challenges submitted weeks before Election Day.

The board, citing a lack of probable cause behind the challenges, voted 4-1 to approve the dismissal. Pat Gartland, the Cobb Republican Party appointee, was the vote in opposition.

The challenges were submitted by Karyl Asta and Eugene Williams, Cobb residents who've tried on multiple previous occasions to have voters removed from the rolls. Asta submitted 1,232, while Williams submitted 118.

Unlike past voter challenges, which have focused on voters alleged to have moved out of state, all of the challenges considered Monday were related to addresses which were reportedly incomplete. Asta and Williams cited addresses missing apartment or unit numbers, or in the case of a number of Kennesaw State University students, missing dorm numbers.

Williams told the board he'd endeavored to send letters to two of the voters he'd challenged.

"And as I expected," he said, "they all came back as undeliverable. You can't reach them. Again, it kind of begs the question — do they even exist?"

Board Chair Tori Silas (appointed by Cobb's legislative delegation), citing the possibility the challenges could be litigated, initially suggested the board discuss them in executive session, but that failed to get traction. Silas then offered that when she lived in an apartment in south Cobb, she had no unit number listed on her mailing address — only the address of the complex.

Board member Jennifer Mosbacher (appointed by Chairwoman Lisa Cupid) then moved to dismiss the challenges wholesale, which was approved.