One metro Atlanta county enacted an extension that allowed for the counting of absentee ballots after Election Day, but the Georgia Supreme Court issued a ruling on Monday that put a stop to it.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled late Monday that the extension granted by Cobb County that could impact thousands of mail-in voters has been reversed.
The ruling from the court reversed a lower judge’s ruling that had granted 3,000 voters an extension of the mail-in-ballot deadline after Cobb County election officials admitted they missed the deadline to ship them out. The deadline for mail-in ballots to be received in Georgia is election day — but the lower judge had given those voters an extension for them to be postmarked by election day and received by Nov. 8, the same deadline for overseas ballots.
Cobb County, Ga., is just northwest of Atlanta, and it’s a typical suburban county in that it has trended toward the Democrats in recent elections. The Democrat Party had filed a suit to allow the county to grant an extension to the mail-in deadline for 3,000 absentee ballots, which a superior court judge upheld.
The mail-in ballot deadline was Oct. 31, but the county initially extended the deadline because it had received a “surge in absentee ballot requests,” as the Cobb County Courier described the situation:
“We want to maintain voter trust by being transparent about the situation,” said Board of Elections Chairwoman Tori Silas in the news release. “We are taking every possible step to get these ballots to the voters who requested them. Unfortunately, we were unprepared for the surge in requests and lacked the necessary equipment to process the ballots quickly.”
“After our vendor’s final run on Friday, we needed to utilize our in-house equipment for the final shipment of ballots, but the equipment was not working properly,” said Silas. “By the time we got the equipment online, the deadline for mailing the ballots had passed, prompting us to work with the US Postal Service and UPS to take extraordinary measures. Our team has been working around the clock to get the ballots out.”
Judge Robert Flournoy had ruled that “this Court declares that Defendants' delay in mailing absentee ballots to the Affected Voters violated Georgia law and likely Plaintiffs' and similarly situated voters' state constitutional rights.” Claiming “broad discretion,” Flournoy ordered an extension to the deadline for these voters.
“The Georgia Supreme Court ordered the Cobb board to ‘keep separate’ the absentee ballots of those voters that are received after the deadline on election day but before November 8 in a secure, safe, and sealed container separate from other voted ballots,” WSB reported.
“The court also ordered the board to notify the voters by email, text, or public announcement of the change,” the report continues. “At this point, all votes will need to be in by 7 p.m. on Election Day.”
Related: Georgia Election Preview: The Lay of the Land in the Reddest 'Purple' State
Republican National Committee Co-Chair Michael Whatley quickly celebrated the high court’s decision:
HUGE election integrity victory in Georgia.
— Michael Whatley (@ChairmanWhatley) November 4, 2024
Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline. We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court.
We just got word that we WON the case. Election Day is Election Day — not the week…
However, the ACLU was apoplectic:
🚨 ATTN VOTERS IN COBB COUNTY, GEORGIA 🚨
— ACLU (@ACLU) November 4, 2024
The Georgia Supreme Court denied relief for over 3,000 Cobb County voters who requested absentee ballots but did not receive them on time due to the county’s failure to mail them promptly. https://t.co/43Unv30mZj
Back in May, during Georgia’s primaries, I wrote about how the Supreme Court contest between Justice Andrew Pinson, a Kemp-appointed, fair-minded young jurist, and John Barrow, a far-left crusader, was a down-ballot race that was too important to ignore. Georgia voters made the right choice, and this decision reflected the wisdom of reelecting Pinson.
Never forget that all elections are important.
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