UPDATE: Late-mailed Cobb Ballots Due on Election Day, Ga. Supreme Court Rules
Cobb County won’t get extension to count absentee ballots despite mail delays, Ga. Supreme Court rules Published: Nov. 4, 2024 at 4:48 PM
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First/AP) -Cobb County election workers can only count absentee ballots received by 7 p.m. on Election Day despite mail delays, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday.The ruling came after two civil rights groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center (Stacy Abrams FairFight Con were involved), filed an emergency lawsuit Friday asking a Cobb County judge to extend the deadline for counting absentees postmarked by Election Day to Nov. 8.
The groups filed the lawsuit in response to Cobb election officials saying last week that they were late in mailing more than 3,000 absentee ballots to voters just a few days before the election.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three Cobb County voterswho said they still had not received absentee ballots by mail as of Friday. The lawsuit said that although county election officials “have taken some steps to help alleviate the problem, those actions are not nearly enough to safeguard their right to vote.”
Ruling on that lawsuit, Cobb County Senior Judge Robert Flournoy issued an order Friday extending the deadline for the affected absentee ballots.
The order allowed the Cobb election board to count the affected absentee ballots received by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, as long as they are postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day. The extension only applied to absentee ballots mailed after Oct. 30, according to officials.
>> READ THE FULL RULING:
The Georgia Republican Party and the Republican National Committee opposed the ruling. On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court decided in their favor, striking down Flournoy’s ruling, and ordering that the Cobb County election board “may count only those absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2024.”
The court also ordered theelection board to “keep separate the absentee ballots of any ‘affected voters’” – as identified by Flournoy’s ruling on Friday – “that are received by the board after 7 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2024, and on or before 5 p.m. on November 8, 2024, in a secure, safe, and sealed container separate from other voted ballots.”
The court ordered that the “ballots shall not be destroyed” until “further order of the Court,” consistent with Georgia law.
The court also ordered the board to notify affected voters “of the 7 p.m., November 5, 2024, deadline for return of their absentee ballots in the same manner as delineated” by Flournoy.
In a post on X, state GOP chairman Josh McKoon called the ruling a “huge legal victory.”
Last week, Cobb County Board of Elections ChairwomanTori Silas blamed the mail delay on faulty equipmentand a late surge in absentee ballot requests during the week before the Oct. 25 deadline.
Election officials were using U.S. Postal Service express mail and UPS overnight delivery in an effort to deliver the ballots on time.The late absentee ballots were being mailed with prepaid express return envelopes, which election officials said would ensure they could be returned on time.
County election officials said voters awaiting absentee ballots that were late could still vote in-person on the final day of early voting Friday or on Tuesday. The county’s election headquarters planned to stay open to accept hand-delivered absentees through the weekend and on Monday.
However, the Board of Elections said that more than 1,000 of the absentee ballots being mailed late were being sent to people outside of Georgia.
A county spokesperson, Ross Cavitt, declined to comment Friday on what number, if any, of the late ballots still needed to be mailed, citing pending litigation.“The Cobb County Board of Elections is aware of and will comply with the Georgia Supreme Court’s order granting a stay,” Silas said in a statement to Atlanta News First on Monday. “However, because the order only addressed to the motion for a stay, we will anticipate the Supreme Court’s final ruling to see whether it ultimately allow these voters additional time to return their ballots or whether we must only count those received by the close of polls on Tuesday.”
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/11/04/cobb-county-can-only-count-absentee-ballots-received-by-election-day-georgia-supreme-court-rules/
Josh McKoon
@JoshMcKoon
HUGE LEGAL VICTORY IN GEORGIA! The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party that no election office can extend voting to accept ballots after Election Day! Thank you to
@GOP @ChairmanWhatley @LaraLeaTrump @RNCVoteProtect and our incredible legal team! #gapol #gagop
https://x.com/JoshMcKoon/status/1853534477357568111