According to a ruling made by the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday, Cobb County, which is governed by Democrats, cannot take tons of absentee ballots delivered after the vote time deadline.
Cobb County announced on Thursday that as of Oct. 30, “more than 3, 000 absentee ballots requested by previous Friday’s deadline had not been mailed”.
Tori Silas, the president of the Cobb County Board of Elections, stated that the state was” taking every possible action to get these vote to the citizens who requested them,” but that it was “unprepared for the surge in pleas and lacked the necessary tools to practice the ballots immediately. While absentee ballot requests “been averaging 440 per time,” the county reported that the number “went up to 750 per time” during the last week to obtain an absentee ballot.
The county announced on Thursday that it would overnight the late ballots for a Friday morning ( Nov. 1 ) delivery with “prepaid express return envelopes to ensure voters can return them by Tuesday’s deadline.”
But on Friday, the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a suit arguing that, despite the state taking steps to get the votes delivered to electors by Friday, voters may become “disenfranchised”.
The fictitious explanation was supported by Cobb County Judge Robert Flournoy, who ruled on Friday that the 3, 000 or so voters who received a late mail-in vote was return those vote before 5 p.m. on November 8 — three whole days after Election Day — as long as the votes were postmarked by midnight on November 5; the votes were then postmarked by 7 p.m. on November 5.
The Georgia Republican Party and the Republican National Committee filed an appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court, arguing that since Cobb County paid for express return postage and overnighted the ballots in order to — as Cobb County said — “ensure voters can return the ballots ] by Tuesday’s deadline,” there is no need to extend the date for acceptance.
Georgia “does not guarantee a right to vote by mail,” the appeal claimed. Instead,” Voters still have many options to cast their ballots, including by delivering their absentee ballots in person” ( p. 10 ).
The Georgia Supreme Court granted the RNC and the Georgia GOP’s request to halt the lower court’s decision. Any absentee ballots that arrive late will not be counted as a result. The court also gave the 3, 000 voters ‘ late-arriving ballots a segregation order until the court gave further notice.
Voters who did not receive their mail-in ballot may cast a ballot in person on Tuesday.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley expressed his congratulations on the decision in a post on X.
” Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3, 000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline. We sent this case to the Supreme Court of Georgia. We recently received word that we won the case. Election Day is Election Day— not the week after”, Whatley said.
” We will keep fighting, keep winning, and keep sharing updates”.
For more election news and updates, visit , electionbriefing.com.
Brianna Lyman is a correspondent for The Federalist on elections. With a degree in international political economy, Brianna received her degree from Fordham University. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
