With long lines at polling places across the state, Georgia’s top elections official called for an investigation into two metro Atlanta counties.

“The voting situation today in certain precincts in Fulton and DeKalb counties is unacceptable,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

He said an investigation would figure out “what these counties need to do” before the Nov. 3 general election, when Georgia voters will have their say for president and choose two U.S. senators.

“Obviously, the first time a new voting system is used, there is going to be a learning curve, and voting in a pandemic only increased these difficulties,” Raffensperger said. “But every other county faced these same issues and were significantly better prepared to respond so that voters had every opportunity to vote.”

Tuesday’s election marks the first statewide deployment of a new voting system with touchscreen voting that produces a paper record of the citizen’s votes. That paper is scanned to tally the votes.

It’s also the first statewide election for Raffensperger since taking office as secretary of state in January 2019. He is a former state legislator.

He drew harsh criticism Tuesday from House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, who cited stories of “unacceptable deficiencies,” including untrained poll workers, inoperable equipment and absentee ballots that were not received.

“Our poll workers give of their time to serve Georgians, and they do not deserve to be blamed for systemic problems beyond their control.”

Ralston directed the House Governmental Affairs Committee to investigate the elections and recommend changes. Rep. Bruce Williamson, R-Monroe, is the secretary of the committee.