CNN reports that the delays led to Georgia’s secretary of state and state House speaker call for an inquiry into the delays. Long queues are said to have formed in some areas, with CNN adding that some voters had to stand in the sun for up to four hours as they waited to cast their votes.
Primaries in the US allow states to choose the nominees for the major political parties at general elections.
The delays in voting meant extensions were put in place in some counties.
CNN adds that in DeKalb County, voting was extended for two-and-a-half hours after polls were meant to close to 21:30.
Social distancing may have contributed to the extraordinarily long queues and delays, but technical issues have also been blamed.
According to the BBC, this meant it was impossible to cast ballots in some areas.
Reports on Twitter arose throughout the day that voting machines were not working. Ron Clark, and author and teacher, tweeted that machines were “not working at the Central Park voting precinct” and that “many” voters had left.
Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms then took to Twitter to urge voters to stay in line.
She wrote: “If you are in line, PLEASE do not allow your vote to be suppressed. PLEASE stay in line. They should offer you a provisional ballot of the machines are not working.”
Meanwhile, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in an interview with WAGA-TV that the voting issues were “unacceptable” and stressed work would be done to resolving the issues “before November’s election”, the BBC reports.
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There have also been issues of poll workers quitting in the weeks before the voting due to Covid-19 concerns.
On Monday, AJC reported that a record of 943,000 voters had cast their votes through absentee ballots over the weekend in order to avoid contact with people at polling stations.
The news site added that there had also been in increase in black voters, who accounted for 44 percent of in-person votes on Friday.
US President Donald Trump has been vocally opposed to mail-in ballots, claiming that they open the system up to fraud.
After posting to Twitter saying such, the social media platform attached a fact-check warning to the president’s tweets.
In November, current US president Donald Trump is expected to go head to head with Democrat rival Joe Biden.