Georgia Supreme Court Cancels Deadline Extension for Cobb County Voters Who Received Ballots Late
The Georgia Supreme Court paused a lower court decision extending the ballot receipt deadline for over 3,000 Cobb County voters who received late ballots. The county may only count ballots that are received by 7 p.m. on Election Day — the deadline under existing state law.
The ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of three voters after Cobb County announced Thursday that they would be mailing thousands of ballots late. The county encountered an equipment malfunction and received large numbers of absentee ballot applications at the last minute, causing them to miss the state’s deadline for sending out ballots. Although the county sent the late ballots via express mail, the plaintiffs worried that their returning ballots would not arrive by the Nov. 5 deadline.
Georgia continues to be one of the most influential swing states this election year and this decision will have an impact on thousands of voters in Cobb County.
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On Friday, Cobb County Judge Robert Flournoy extended the receipt deadline for impacted voters until 5 p.m. on Nov. 8, as long as the ballots were postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day. He also ordered the county to notify affected voters and to place their ballots in a separate, secure container if they arrive after Election Day.
The Republican National Committee and Georgia Republican Party — intervenors in the case — immediately appealed to the state Supreme Court and asked for Flournoy’s decision to be paused. They argued that because Cobb County overnighted the ballots and prepaid for express return, extending the receipt deadline past the date state law mandates is unnecessary.
The state Supreme Court also ordered the county to keep any ballots of the affected voters that are received between 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 and 5 p.m. on Nov. 8 in a separate, sealed container until further notice from the court.
Previous update, Nov. 2
A Georgia judge extended the ballot receipt deadline on Friday for Cobb County, Georgia voters who received their mail-in ballots late or still haven’t received them.
This ruling came in the case filed by the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of three voters.
The lawsuits stemmed from a statement that Cobb County released on Thursday, stating that over 3,000 ballots would not be sent out to vote on time due to a surge of last-minute ballot applications and a malfunction with their equipment.
The next day, voters sued the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration, stating that thousands of voters could be disenfranchised in the upcoming election if action is not taken.
On Friday afternoon, Cobb County Judge Robert Flournoy ruled in favor of the voters, ordering the county election board to accept ballots mailed in by the affected voters until 5 p.m. Nov. 8, as long as they are postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day. This is a deadline that usually only applies to military and overseas voters.
In his order, Flournoy said “There is no question that Defendants’ conduct here constitutes a severe burden on Plaintiffs’ fundamental right to vote,” and that the members of the county election board “do not appear to suffer any harm from an injunction, and indeed readily admits their own error.”
He also ordered the board to segregate ballots of the affected voters received after 7 p.m. on Election Day in a safe, secure container and provide notice to the affected voters about the extended deadline as soon as possible. Also, the board has to provide a list of the affected voters to the plaintiffs in the case.
There is not a ruling yet in a similar lawsuit brought Friday by the Democratic National Committee and the Georgia Democratic Party.
Previous update, Nov. 1
Shortly after Georgia voters sued to extend the ballot receipt deadline for over 3,000 voters in Cobb County who still haven’t received mail-in ballots, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Georgia Democratic Party filed a similar lawsuit against the county.
The lawsuits both ask the county to count mail-in ballots sent in by the affected voters, even if they aren’t delivered by Election Day. They said that as long as these ballots are received by Nov. 8, the deadline for military and overseas voters (UOCAVA), they should be considered on time in this extenuating circumstance.
This follows a release on Thursday from the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration announcing that they failed to send out thousands of absentee ballots to voters within three days of their applications being processed due to a “surge of last-minute absentee ballot applications” and a malfunction with the board’s equipment.
The DNC’s lawsuit asks for one thing that the voters’ case doesn’t: to allow affected overseas voters to use the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot to vote if they still haven’t received their Cobb County ballot by noon (local time) on Election Day.
This special absentee ballot can serve as a backup mail-in ballot for UOCAVA voters to participate in federal elections. It’s blank, and has spaces for voters to write in their selections for president, U.S. Senate and U.S. House.
The Democratic plaintiffs also asked the court to order the county elections board to notify the affected overseas voters that they have this option.
Learn more about the case here.
Original post, Nov. 1
The ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued Friday on behalf of three voters to extend the ballot receipt deadline for over 3,000 voters in Cobb County, Georgia who still haven’t received mail-in ballots.
The plaintiffs said in the lawsuit that “more than 3,000 other lawfully registered Cobb County voters are on the brink of disenfranchisement in the November 5 election.”
On Thursday, the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration said in a release that they failed to send out thousands of absentee ballots to voters within three days of their applications being processed due to a “surge of last-minute absentee ballot applications.” Also, there was a malfunction with the board’s equipment.
“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 Elections Director Tate Fall. “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.”
They said that election workers will send most of these ballots with express or overnight delivery by Friday morning so voters can send them in by Election Day. Georgia will only count mail-in ballots received by the time polls close on Election Day.
Also, the county said that voters who have not received their ballots can return their ballots to the Elections Headquarters — which has extended their hours this weekend — or vote in person during early voting on Friday or Election Day.
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs said “that would only leave those voters with one business day to return their ballots and absolutely no guarantee that postal carriers will return them before polls close on November 5.”
Also, two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are college students who are currently living out of state and can’t travel home to vote in person.
Georgia does have an exception for ballots sent in by military and overseas (UOCAVA) voters, which will be accepted as long as they are postmarked by the date of the election and received within three days of Election Day.
The plaintiffs asked a state court to apply the UOCAVA deadline to the affected voters in this case and notify these voters immediately of the extended ballot receipt deadline.
In a statement, the ACLU attributed Cobb County’s inability to send out ballots on time to Georgia Senate Bill 202, a voter suppression law that shortened the window for requesting and distributing absentee ballots.
“These voters followed the right steps to elect their leaders, yet stand on the brink of disenfranchisement due to bureaucratic errors that the increased burdens on voters and local officials have only worsened,” said Theresa J. Lee, senior staff attorney, at the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.
Andrea Young, the executive director of the ACLU of Georgia said that “counties have been set up to fail by Georgia’s anti-voter law.”
With Election Day only four days away, the plaintiffs in this case asked the court for emergency intervention in this case. The court scheduled a hearing for this afternoon, which began at 1:30 p.m.
In a similar lawsuit filed in Cobb County before the 2022 election, the Cobb County Superior Court ordered the county to extend the ballot receipt deadline for affected voters. This new lawsuit was filed in the same court.
This issue is not isolated to Georgia. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in Erie County after an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 voters had not received their ballots as of Monday.