A Georgia decide on Saturday rejected a Republican lawsuit attempting to dam counties from opening election places of work on Saturday and Sunday to let voters hand of their mail ballots in particular person.
The lawsuit solely named Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that features many of the metropolis of Atlanta and is residence to 11% of the state’s voters. However a minimum of 5 different populous counties that are likely to vote for Democrats additionally introduced election places of work would open over the weekend to permit hand return of absentee ballots.
The lawsuit was filed late Friday and cited a bit of Georgia legislation that claims poll drop packing containers can’t be open previous the top of advance voting, which ended Friday. However state legislation says voters can ship their absentee ballots in particular person to county election places of work till the shut of polls at 7 p.m. on Election Day. Regardless of that clear wording, lawyer Alex Kaufman initially claimed in an emergency listening to Saturday that voters aren’t allowed to hand-deliver absentee ballots that had been mailed to them.
Kaufman then argued that voters ought to be blocked from hand-delivering their ballots between the shut of early in-person voting on Friday and the start of Election Day on Tuesday, though he stated it was superb for ballots to reach by mail throughout that interval. It has lengthy been the observe for Georgia election places of work to just accept mail ballots over-the-counter.
Fulton County Superior Court docket Decide Kevin Farmer, in a web based listening to, repeatedly rejected Kaufman’s arguments earlier than orally ruling towards him.
“I discover that it’s not a violation of these two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots,” Farmer stated.
Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez stated that as of simply earlier than 5 p.m. Saturday, 105 ballots had been acquired on the 4 areas.
“All voters returning absentee ballots in particular person to the Division of Registration & Elections should signal an affidavit indicating whether or not they’re returning the poll for themselves or a licensed member of the family, family member or particular person of their care,” the Fulton County Division of Registration & Elections stated in a information launch Saturday night.
Republicans have been centered on the conduct of elections in Fulton County for years, after President Donald Trump falsely blamed Fulton County staff for defrauding him of the 2020 election in Georgia.
Nathan Posner/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
State GOP chairman Josh McKoon accused counties managed by Democrats of “illegally accepting ballots.” The difficulty shortly gained traction on-line Saturday amongst Republican activists, significantly after a Fulton County election official despatched an electronic mail to elections staff saying that observers wouldn’t be allowed to sit down inside election places of work whereas ballots had been turned in.
Fulton County elections director Nadine Williams stated throughout the listening to that these had been county places of work and never polling locations, and thus partisan ballot watchers have by no means been allowed to watch these areas.
However hours later, Williams despatched out an electronic mail clarifying that the method ought to be open to the general public and no credentials or badges had been wanted. She famous that members of the impartial monitoring crew that’s observing Fulton County’s election processes had been additionally on web site and that investigators from the secretary of state’s workplace may additionally be current.
