Election monitors to oversee polls in southeast Georgia

MACON, Ga. - The U.S. Attorney&#39;s Office will post monitors at 43 courthouses in southeast Georgia for the Nov. 5 general election because of past voting irregularities.<br> <br> The Justice Department usually posts monitors at selected Georgia courthouses on Election Day. The decision to cover each courthouse marks an expansion of the program.<br> <br> Rick Thompson, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said the program will let people with complaints fill out questionnaires and talk to a monitor at the courthouse.<br> <br> The monitors are prohibited from being in the actual polling places.<br> <br> &#34;We&#39;re not trying to address any specific problem,&#34; Thompson said. &#34;All we want to do is make it easier for folks to make written complaints about any perceived voting irregularities that they think are out there.&#34;<br> <br> The monitors will be at every courthouse in the Southern District, which includes all of southeast Georgia, stretching as far west as Dublin and as far north as Lincolnton.<br> <br> Thompson said election law violations have been rampant in the past, noting the 1996 Dodge County voting scandal, which resulted in 30 convictions.<br> <br> A lengthy investigation turned up widespread abuses: fraudulent absentee ballots, votes cast by convicted felons, multiple votes from one person, and in one case, a vote cast in the name of a dead person.<br> <br> Dan Drake, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys office, said the confusion that marked the 2000 presidential election in Florida and other states was another reason for the expansion.<br> <br> A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney&#39;s Office in Macon said no decision has been made whether to use the federal observers in the Middle District counties.<br> <br>