Key Georgia county will overnight absentee ballots to voters who never got them, after lawsuit

The Cobb County, Ga. elections office will send absentee ballots via priority express mail to voters who never received them despite applying weeks ago. The announcement comes after a lawsuit aimed at forcing the county to act*. 

The county board of elections acknowledged in a statement Wednesday that a “limited number” of voters experienced delays in receiving their ballots.

The board also admitted that the delayed deliveries may have been caused by the vendor it hired, the New York-based Fort Orange Press, which has been responsible for mail ballot delays in several other states. 

“In order to address the delays caused by the county’s third-party vendor, Cobb [elections board], will provide voters whose ballots were issued during that time period (Oct.7 through Oct. 15) an opportunity to request a new absentee ballot to be mailed to them by priority express mail, with a prepaid return priority express envelope,” the announcement reads. 

The statement came after a Cobb County resident filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the election board on behalf of nearly 3,000 voters who’ve yet to receive their mail ballots despite applying for them the first week of October. By law, county officials are supposed to send the ballots back to the applicants within three days during the early voting period, which began Oct. 5

In its statement, the board said that the affected voters would have to contact county election officials to request the new ballots. In the lawsuit, the voters asked a court to have the county reach out to the voters affected by the delays. 

The voters will have to sign an affidavit to cancel their original ballot, and then county officials will overnight them a new one “[i]f the voter is verified to have been affected by the delay.”

The offer will not apply to voters who may have already received their ballot by Wednesday, who’ve already voted in person or who have already cancelled their original ballot. 

Cobb County is a major Democratic stronghold. Georgia hosts a pivotal race for the U.S. Senate.

* The Elias Law Group (ELG) represents the plaintiff in the case. ELG Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.