“It’s important that we get this right, and certainly we’ve had enough time and enough delays at this point where it should be right,” Mr. Johnson, a Democrat, said at a news conference. But he urged voters to stay in line. “We’ve gotten this far,” he said, adding, “Do not give up.”
In Macon, a city of more than 150,000 in the part of the state known as Middle Georgia, Joshua Rodefer arrived to vote at a high school shortly after 7 a.m. None of the machines were operating, he said, and poll workers could not give him an estimate for when they would be fixed.
“Basically, everybody coming in was throwing their hands up and walking away in frustration,” Mr. Rodefer said.
Mr. Rodefer said he returned in the afternoon and was able to vote without issue. Poll workers told him that it had taken at least two hours to fix the voting machines.
Clarice Kimp, a marketing strategist who lives in DeKalb County, said she arrived at her polling place on Tuesday at 6:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the polls were supposed to open.
“They opened the doors to let us come inside at about 7:30 or 7:45, but some voters in line had started leaving,” Ms. Kimp said. “They’re saying the voting machines aren’t powering on. You might as well go home.”
She finally voted at 9:15 by provisional ballot. The machines were still not working, she said.
“I think,” Ms. Kimp said, “this is exactly what people mean when they say voter suppression.”
Richard Fausset reported from Atlanta, Reid J. Epstein from Washington, and Rick Rojas from Columbus, Miss. Nick Corasaniti contributed reporting from Ocean View, Del., Stephanie Saul from New York, and Michael Wines from Washington.
